Culture and its significance towards Uganda’s tourism development:

Abstract

The study was carried out to determine the role of culture towards Uganda’s tourism development. The specific objectives were to assess the significance of people towards tourism development, to assess the contribution of cultural sites towards tourism development, to assess the contribution of cultural institutions towards tourism development. The study was based on Leiper’s tourism system model of 1990. In which Neil Leiper asserts that culture is one of the major significant components that make up and develop a tourism destination region. Cultural elements such as the heritage and cultural sites, cultural institutions and the people are paramount drivers in developing tourism a destination area. The research objectiveswere directly anchored from the same theorywhich guided the entire research process. The study utilized a descriptive research design and quantitative approach. Data was collected from 50 as a target population with accessible unit of inquiry being 44 respondents consisting of museum guides, museum casual workers, tour operators, tourist, opinion leaders and museum managers. Data was collected using a closed ended questionnaire and statistical package for social sciences was used for analyzing data from which frequency tables, descriptive statistics, reliability, validity, correlation and regression results were obtained. The study established that there is a very coherent relationship between people and tourism development; it indicates that people are a major driver of sustainability of the cultural heritage resources and that the performance of the local people and cultural site workers directly affect the development of tourism in an area. The study further indicatedthere is a significant effect between cultural sites and tourism development; the two variables are directly proportional in that the more the cultural sites, the more tourism can develop. The study established that cultural institutions are an essential element for enhancement of tourism development of the museum. This implies that Uganda museum require the cultural institution mechanisms that would enable the management to make an informed decision which would boost the tourism development. The study therefore recommends that people, cultural sites and cultural institutions are the major drivers of tourism development especially in the culturally endowed communities like the central part of Uganda.