Relevance of Ground Handlers to Tourism Development

Since the destruction of the tourism industry by Amin in 1986 the story of Uganda's tourism industry has changed. The boarder have gone from being lacked to visitors to Uganda being promoted as a thriving tourist destination through most of the ground operators  in Uganda. The introduction of tour operators in Uganda has lifted the growth of the tourism industry in Uganda basically through marketing of various means including nation branding , Uganda’s tour operators believe that due to the set back that was more an involvement in Amin's regime, they have succeeded in there goal to help create a more positive national identity both internally and externally currently Uganda .

According to Honziker and Kraft (1990) Tourism is the sum of phenomenon and relationship arising from travel and stay of non-residents in a place away from their origin and without conducting activities that earn income or staying permanently in the destination area.

A Tour Operator is an individual or organization in the business of bulk buying and subsequently bunding  the various components to make up a package holiday. He makes all necessary arrangements of transport , accommodation, excursions, insurance, entertainment and other issues creating one package which is then sold at an all inductive price (Douglas 1989).

The World Tourism reports that the growth in the number of Tour  operators has achieved some fundamental change in the Tourism industry like reducing the prices of travel abroad and expanded the remote located in the country that would have not been reachable.

Borkat and Medlik (1984) note that today most of the tourism generating countries are dominated by ground handlers who facilitate local market .They also note that the growth of ground handlers has helped the growth of scheduled airline services and has became the most vigorous sector of the local market due to the tourists coming to a local destination .The ground handlers have penetrated markets tapped by the scheduled airlines and have offered the holiday tourist a true and complete tourist product making a broad past of the good life to complete with television and car.

The ground handlers have thus played a big role towards the development of the tourism industry in Uganda because of their ability to provide reliable and quality services in Tourism,  leisure and hospitality.  David (1992) notes that these handlers have done much more than there predecessors who existed in the beginning of the tourism business. 

The tourism industry in Uganda is focused on Uganda’s landscape and wildlife, it’s a major driver of employment, investment and foreign exchange contributing 4.9trillion Ugandan Shillings, US$1.88 billion as August 2013 to Uganda’s GDP in financial year 2012-2013.

In the tourism industry there are travel companies that employee people directly as drivers ,guides secretaries accountants among others that the travel companies move on smoothly in the tourism industry hence bringing about contribution of travel companies to the development of the tourism industry in Uganda.

A regulation framework of tour and travel companies is provided by the Uganda Tourism act (2008), the tourists agents licensing regulations(1972) and tourism licensing act (1962) aim at standardizing and harmonizing firms operations ad consider issues to do with location, staff and their qualification , capital requirements and annual licensing fees, while the regulation  frame works may appear  to be  based on old guidelines ,updates have been provided by newer documents  (GOU 1992, GOU 2009) entry to either the tour operators, travel agents business is quite easy with interest persons requires to fulfill the above regulatory frame work including major issues such as concern on location ,number on staff and qualifications, capital requirements and annual  licensing fees ,the requirements for one to be considered a tour operator including a minimum share capital of US$10,000 , at list nine staff members  including managing director ,tour manager ,reservation officer , accounting officer ,secretary, two trained guides and drivers and registration of vehicles intended for use with the ministry of tourism the annual license for a tour operators cost US$50

                                                     

Those intending to operate as travel agents  are required  to have a minimum authorized capital of US$50,000 ,one vehicle for administration duties , which should be clearly marketed with the company’s name , a model manager and office messenger. Firms are also required to prove membership of the Association of Uganda Travel Agents (TUGATA) .

The annual license for travel agents is charged at US$30. The annual license and prove of membership to the Association of Uganda Tour Operators (AUTO). The minimum requirements for one occupy any positions in either a tour operator (ground handler) or travel agent companies are also provided. The labour requirements for the staff are quite modest with the highest education requirement being advanced education certificate (A level) considering that the country has a number of universities and tertiary institutions.

World over there two major types of tour operators and these are national tour operators who operate within a country's boundaries ( ground handlers) and multinational tour operators who participate internationally (Holloway 1994).The tour operators bring together products of individual suppliers and market them as package to the final user.