Uganda bets on travel bloggers to bait 2 million tourists from Iberia

March 11, 2025 in Business, Travel & Tourism by Editor

Uganda is leaning on the influence of a septet of travel bloggers from France and Spain, to lure their followers into visiting the East African nation that boasts the most diverse attractions packed in a small geographical footprint.

France and Spain, along with Portugal and Andorra, are collectively known as the Iberian Peninsula, a region in southwestern Europe separated from the rest of the continent by the Pyrenees mountains.

The bloggers – five from France and two from Spain – are on a 7-day whistle-stop tour that will take them to mid-western Uganda and eastern Uganda where they will witness efforts to re-introduce the White Rhino, hunted to extinction during the tumultuous seventies and eighties; as well as the thrills of the Nile, the longest river in the world, whose main course starts on its 6650 kilometre journey to the Mediterranean sea, from Jinja on the northern shores of Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world.

The tour was organized by Uganda’s embassy to France in collaboration with TANKE, a Paris based influencer marketing agency.

“We are here to show this beautiful country to m ore people and the young people I brought here with me are very happy to be here,” TANKE executive director Ertan Anadol, said during the flag-off of the tour by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Vincent Bagiire, earlier today.

“It is surprising how few people in France and Spain know about this country, which in my experience, has the friendliest people among all the countries I have been to and me and these young people are here to change that.”

The few Iberians who know about Uganda, tend to know only its signature tourism product- the Mountain Gorilla, rather than its people, an asset he finds deserving of more awareness.

Anadol’s observations echoed remarks by the visiting bloggers who said they had no prior impressions of Uganda before the visit and were eager to discover and share their experiences.

Between them, the bloggers have an audience of 2 million followers, a slice of which Uganda is targeting. Their tour will take them to the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in Nakasongola, a taste of Uganda’s rich culinary offerings at Ewaffe village in Nagalama, the Source of the Nile, Bungee-jumping and rafting the famous rapids of the Nile between Bujagaali hydropower station and Isimba dam further downstream.

Addressing herself to Ugandan media, Doreen Ruth Amule, Uganda’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of France, emphasized the importance of positive narratives in making Uganda more alluring to potential visitors and how media can be leveraged as a source of employment by Ugandan youth.

The use of social platforms such as Instagram to make positive portrayals of life in Uganda, can earn creators’ audiences, influence and in turn income, Amule explained.

The maiden tour is a prelude to more expeditions that will be paced over time, with each visit targeting a different aspect of Uganda’s natural endowments.