People’s perception of urban tourism facilities in Uganda : a case study of the source of the River Nile - Jinja city council
Abstract
Perception of tourists has been at the center of research by scholars where a lot of emphasis has always been put on factors influencing the decision making to travel for tourism, other researchers put emphasis on the demographic characteristics of; age, sex, income level, education level among other, to examine people’s perception of tourism facilities. The tourism facilities include; the attraction, accommodation, amenities, accessibility, and activities at one point. This study was aimed at assessing the people’s perception of the urban tourism facilities and the case of the source of the Nile in Jinja City Council, Specifically; to establish urban tourism facilities at the source of the Nile, to examine people’s perception of the urban tourism facilities at the source of the Nile, to propose strategies for improving the urban tourism facilities at the source of the river Nile-Jinja City Council.
Qualitative and quantitative approaches as research design were used. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data from the 120 tourists, whereas face to face interviews was used to collect in-depth qualitative data from 10 identified key stakeholders including the technical staff of Jinja City. The findings revealed that the source of the Nile was perceived by the tourist as a very unsafe and not comfortable site to yield the desired maximum satisfaction to the visitors as evidenced by only one access/ cliff road whose quality was classified as poor since it lacked crucial infrastructures of lighting, road signs, pedestrian walkways and the observed open drainages by the sides, Poor disposal of garbage, lack of accommodation and conferencing facilities, un safe boat rides to the point of the source on canoes, above all the site having only one activity of the boat. The researcher recommended a number of strategic interventions to enhance people’s perception of the source of the Nile River to include; policy initiation, spatial planning and urban design involving; construction of a viewing deck to minimize the likely risks associated with boat cruise, zoning and regulating activities within a tourism zone among others.