UCOTA - The Uganda Community Tourism Association: a comparison with NACOBTA.
Abstract
This paper is one of two studies of tourism producer associations. The first, which appears as PPT Working Paper No 4, focuses on NACOBTA, in Namibia. This report focuses on UCOTA, a Ugandan trade association which operates on similar lines. It complements the NACOBTA study first by providing a comparison between the two organisations (section 2). This is followed by a description of UCOTA, and an analysis of its impacts on the poor (sections 3, 4 and 5).
In both cases the members of the Association are community tourism enterprises. On the micro level they promote pro-poor tourism development through the provision of both workshop and onsite advice on critical issues to community-based tourism enterprises (CBTEs) within relatively poor rural communities. On the macro level they lobby government to promote policies conducive to CBTE development. They also work within wider tourism organisations to promote CBTEs and act as a voice for communities at an institutional level. The studies highlight the demand for such organisations from both levels - from government, national tourist boards, the private sector, donors and the CBTEs themselves. However, the study also emphasises the need for political and institutional support, political stability, corporate and communication expertise, and sustainable funding for the associations to operate effectively.
Citation
London, UK: ODI, PPT Working Paper No. 5, 33 pp.
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