Fort Portal City Walkers

Fort Portal City walkers was born out of the initiative of a group of enthusiastic and patriotic young travellers with a particular passion for the development of the Uganda’s greatest tourism city of Fort Portal. United in the ideal of promoting local, national and regional tourism, Fort Portal City Walkers was created to share knowledge and passion for Tourism, Fitness and Fun with Fort Portal City natives and visitors from the rest of the world.

Through Fort Portal City Walkers, both business and service professionals come together for the purposes of fellowship. By fellowship we mean the bonds of friendship arising through the mutual participation of members in the club activities.

The Fort Portal City Walkers was set up to: –

• Promote walks across Tooro and Uganda
• Pro-actively market businesses associated with tourism and hospitality in the area
• Promote Community involvement in tourism and conservation of biodiversity
• Building Public relations, marketing and advertising
• Support and contribute to the development of a Tourism City in the region; i.e. Developing Fort Portal City to become a centre of Tourism excellency in the region.
• Advocate for environmental conservation and preservation of culture by utilization of indigenous knowledge, planting of indigenous trees and protecting the African good cultures
• Promoting Health and Wealth of members through various activities and adventures
• To promote friendship, togetherness, peace and co-existence among people of different backgrounds in our city and across boarders;
• To establish and promote relationships with other related organizations in Uganda and elsewhere in the world for the purpose of furthering the objectives of the club.
• To enter into any arrangement with any government company, Organization, Corporation or person that may seem conducive to the attainment of any of the objectives of the organization.
• To invest the club funds into gainful business and investment for furtherance of the club objectives

Fort Portal City Walkers Values: The values that bind all members of the Fort Portal City Walkers include; Self-satisfaction, fun, adventure, personal growth and Service. These are the ingredients that make up the City Walkers winning formula.

Fort Portal City Walkers’ Key Principles:

1. Collaborate and focus on unity
2. Introduce and welcome new members
3. Find the best fit between tourism, fitness and fun
4. Make nature Destinations come alive,
5. Preserve and protect natural resources.

Fort Portal City Walkers walk every Saturday starting at 7:30am from Fort Portal City Center to different destinations within and around Fort Portal City. Our walks are to the most attractive nature destinations such as crater lakes, hiking to Rwenzori hills, to farm lands and other attractions. Some times we do our nature walks and hikes to other districts in the region such as Ibanda, Kasese, Bundibugyo, Mbarara, Kabale and Kisoro.

Amenities that make Fort Portal special tourism applause

1. All major Roads from Fort Portal to other major towns and tourism sites are tarmacked namely; Fort portal-Kasese, Fort Portal-Ntoroko, Fort Portal-Bundibugyo, Fort Portal-Kampala, Fort Portal-Mbarara and Fort Portal-Kamwenge road making those places easily accessible from Fort Portal
2. Located in the centre; all the major tourism sites are not more than an hour away from Fort Portal at an average of 80KM/hr making it possible for to and fro journeys daily from Fort Portal
3. Serene, peaceful and tranquil; Fort Portal has not experienced any form of violence and threats in many years making it the most secure place to settle for any tourist in Uganda.
4. The welcoming and hospitable nature of the Batooro people keeps any visitor comfortable giving a home away from home feel to tourists and volunteers from abroad spending days or months among the Tooro communities
5. With Fort Portal’s nature and environment, lots of fun activities can be created in different places in addition to the usual clubbing, bar going, ball games and athletics.
6. Fort Portal is geographically located in the windward side of Rwenzori mountains hence the most favorable weather there is
7. Fort Portal is also located on a high rise making it a no flood zone despite heavy rains evenly distributed throughout the year making it even safer.
8. Fort Portal is located in Kitara region with a long historic background raising from the time of the Batembuzi Dynasty, Chwezi dynasty to the current Bito Dynasty the rulers of Tooro Kingdom
9. Fort Portal and Tooro as a region has an exciting cultural background hosting over 15 tribes of natives and a vast religious background with over 7 religious denominations hence a rich area for both cultural and religious tourism

Fort Portal due to its tourism city phenomenon will over the years be a unique metropolitan area with a blossoming hotel and hospitality industry holding hundreds of thousands of tourists at any single time from across the world boosting lots of other local businesses including majorly the transport and agriculture/food sectors;

Fort Portal is expected to be a fully-fledged tourism city by 2040 according to the government’s national development plan will be easily attained with increased government financing and focus on infrastructure development and providing incentives to intending tourism investors both local and international.

Fort Portal stands out to be unrivaled as the tourism destination in Uganda which provides huge potential for employment of the young workforce hence increasing the per capita income of the local households.

Profitable Investment Opportunities in and around Fort Portal City

Fort Portal City enjoys a unique location in the Tourism Capital in the Kitara Region, in the heart of the Pearl of Africa. Its landscape encompasses the snowcapped Rwenzori Mountains, contains the largest body of crater lakes in the world, the western escarpments of the Great Rift Valley and close to the largest home of primates Kibale National Park. All the best nature destinations in Western Uganda are in a close reach from Fort Portal City.

Fort Portal also has unique Flora and Fauna, a modified equatorial climate with warm and cold temperatures all year round. This position gives Fort Portal a strategic commanding base for regional trade and investment. The people of Fort Portal –The Batooro are the friendliest you can find. The economy in the area also offers high returns on any investment thus making Fort Portal a preferred investment destination.

Tourism is a fast-growing sector supported by the fact that Uganda is ranked as a top tourist destination and one of only three countries with about 50% of the world’s known population of endangered mountain gorillas. (Source: Lonely planet 2012 and CNN 2016, which ranked Uganda among the top 16 holiday destinations in the world). Fort Portal is more privileged to have been crowned as the only tourism city known in the country, thus most tourists who come to Uganda admire to reach Fort Portal Tourism City.

Tourists who come within the Kitara region consume a number of goods and services such as transportation, hotel and restaurant services, crafts and communication services. Accommodation & Food Service accounted for 3.9% and 6.3% of the total GDP at market prices for the financial year 2019/20. However, research has revealed shortages in accommodation facilities for tourists within the region, especially in Kabarole, Fort Portal and Kasese districts. Tourists find acceptable quality accommodation scarce across several districts within the region. And, nothing in the tourism industry is yet at its maximum potential. Therefore, any group of youths looking for an investment grade opportunity with acceptable returns will look to invest in a chain of luxury accommodation, foods and beverages and other accompanying needs within the region.

Major Business Potentials in and around Fort Portal in relation to Tourism

1. Hotel industry (hotels, lodges, guest houses, restaurants, coffee shops, snacks centers, bars and night clubs)
2. Tour Guidance to various tourism destinations (transport and tour guides)
3. Tourism sites development (Community tourism, religious tours, cultural tours, historical tours, canoeing/boat cruise, craft shops, agricultural tours, health tours, education tours, sports tours, nature tours eg. mountain hikes and nature walks)

Other opportunities in tourism range from: – 

1. Constructing high quality accommodation facilities,
2. Operating tour and travel circuits (bicycle tours, air balloon travel, marine activities on crater lakes
3. Development of specialized eco and community tourism facilities and faith-based tourism
4. Luxury tented camps and cottages
5. Walking Safaris in the wilderness areas and the volcanic craters
6. Canopy Walkways and sky trams
7. Development of Lodges and other types of accommodation to suit the various categories of visitors
8. Abroad volunteer hosting is another lucrative business
9. Nature walks, game farming, game ranching and sport hunting
10. Mountaineering packages for Rwenzori
11. Hot springs baths in Rwagimba and supporting facilities
12. Stop over facilities en-route to the national parks along major tourism circuits e.g. Fort Portal- Kampala, Fort Portal-Mbarara, Fort Portal-Kasese, Fort Portal Bundibugyo

Other Potential Investments in Fort Portal

Fort Portal City is about 300 kilometers from Uganda’s capital Kampala; many people travel to and from Kampala. People and goods going to other districts such as Bundibugyo, Kamwenge, Ntoroko, Bunyangabu, Kasese and even outside to Congo pass through Fort Portal. Many tourists come to Fort Portal each year and need descent transport means. Therefore, transport projects targeting both people and goods are a potential economic investment. To maximize of transport industry, the youths of Fort Portal need to come together and design strategies to dominate the industry, to develop and provide affordable, reliable, convenient, environmentally friendly and safe public transport.

Fort Portal City is growing in terms of construction, within the city and surrounding communities. Even neighboring districts rely on Fort Portal as a source of most construction materials. Youth Groups that aim at supplying Construction materials if developed good strategies can dominate the market and create a life time profitable investment.

Fort Portal City and surrounding communities produce a lot of agricultural produce, take an example of fruits. Much of the fruits produced here is exported to Kampala in its raw form. Youths who invest in Fruit processing will get cheap raw materials from farmers and will be assured of potential market for various products within the city, surrounding communities and outside districts. Like fruits produce there are so many other agricultural produce that the youths in the city can take advantage of. Youths who invest in this industry can partner with government to set up a project to promote agriculture and value addition with specific focus on increasing competitiveness.

Fort Portal needs a leisure park; Although Fort Portal has many leisure and entertainment centers, it lacks on one-stop-center that has it all. Fort Portal needs to create a one-stop center for – related activities and services. Youths that invest in Leisure Park can attract good investment incentives and privileges provided by the Government of Uganda.