Maria Baryamujura

Through her non-profit organization, Community Based Tourism Initiatives (COBATI), [www.cobati.or.ug/] Maria Baryamujura is developing community-based tourism that allows people to use their culture and livelihoods to benefit from tourism, creating sustainable rural lifestyles, and expanding tourism offerings to capitalize on the growing sector in Uganda. Maria is combating urban migration by helping rural households and communities in Uganda to reap economic rewards from tourism. She is changing traditional perceptions of what constitutes tourism by turning various aspects of rural living and environment into tourist attractions, and creating income-generating activities for rural people. Maria is empowering rural people living in resource rich areas in Uganda, who are disadvantaged by rural poverty, to improve their family incomes through tourism in the framework of small homestead enterprises. These household enterprises form the basis for infrastructure development and other government services, providing incentive for people to stay in rural areas. Maria creates a new understanding of tourism among visitors, rural communities, international and local tour operators and government officials. To tap into the increased tourist traffic that accrues from this new definition of tourism, she organizes rural communities into a network of viable and sustainable community-based tourism enterprises as competent service providers. She then turns these successful community based enterprises into role models for other households and community groups to transform their homesteads and livelihoods into income-generating ventures.