Ugandan long distance runner and Olympic gold medalist, Joshua Cheptegei has plans to set up a state-of-the-art athletics museum in his home district of Kapchorwa, which is hoped to be a new dawn in Uganda’s sports tourism.
The museum will be a component of a larger athletics facility – the Joshua Cheptegei Training Centre.
The museum will have the bib numbers (a bib is a sheet of paper with an e-tag attached to it. This tag is used to record the runners accurate timing over the course of the marathon), running gear that Cheptegei used when he broke his records, and his spikes.
“These and so many other things are what will be included in the museum. It’s a big component,” Cheptegei said recently during a press event to launch a drive aimed to mobilize funds needed to complete the training centre.
The athlete credits Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) for leveraging sports to promote destination Uganda around the globe. This year, UTB unveiled Cheptegei as Uganda’s tourism ambassador.
He has since been engaged in different activities including tracking gorillas in Bwindi and bring the world’s attention to other destinations like Mount Rwenzori and Lake Bunyonyi.
“A lot is desired to make destination Uganda known to the rest of the world. We came together and said ‘What can we sell as a country and what can we known for as a country?’. The gorillas are selling a lot, and that’s why you saw me doing the chest thumping. That was a message and millions of people around the world have got the message,” he said, responding to what potential lies in sports in promoting destination Uganda.
The athletic star says this momentum must not stop.
According to Antony Kuka, a member of Cheptegei Training Facility says the museum will showcase the history of Uganda’s rich history in sport, for posterity.
“It is important that the world has a place where they can get information about us. What is it that’s unique about these champions (athletes),” he said.
“For instance, the honey that Joshua takes come from that area – the last honey that he took before he went for the champions’ race”.
The facility will have a dormitory, a guest house and state-of-the-art gym, components Kuka says interest tourists.
“The mere fact that it will be ground to harness more talent means we will have more global billboards. These athletes are our global billboards. When they run, we (Uganda) are viewed across the globe. And that’s what will attract more tourists here”.
The value of sports to tourism cannot be quantified, he said, citing the fact that some tourists are already starting to visit Cheptegei’s home area to understand the lifestyle there.
The Cheptegei training centre, once complete, will also be a good addition to what the Eastern route has to offer for domestic tourists, on top of sites like Sipi falls which since the start of the pandemic became a sudden preference among millennials.
As millions of people across the globe watched the games in Tokyo when Peruth Chemutai won gold, Rob Walker, the commentator described Uganda as “one of the most friendliest and most beautiful countries you could ever wish to visit”, a priceless marketing moment for destination Uganda. Ordinarily, it would cost UTB millions of dollar to place an advert on such a huge global platform.
Uganda is increasingly looking to diversify its tourism product mix as more and more travelers move away from the traditional interests such as wildlife.
Prior to Covid, Uganda was earning $1.6bn annually from tourism, with 1.5 million foreign visitors coming in. however the annual earnings dropped by 73% and visitors dropped by 69.3% due to restrictions in international travel during the pandemic.
The latest figures by Ministry of Tourism indicate that as of June 2020, hotel occupancy dropped from an average of 58% to as low as 5% with over 75% of hotel bookings cancelled. This resulted in a direct loss of $320.8m (Ushs 1.19 trillion).
