Adventures With Locals

We are a team of two female co-founders who are passionate about sustainable tourism. Our story began when we realized that most local communities in tourism were earning little or nothing from tourism .We are on a mission to support and empower locals in tourism.

Rosette Kyomukama Dekool is a travel  Massive Chapter Leader Uganda,World Literacy Foundation Ambassadors Uganda,Be Change Maker Africa 2020,Professional Travel Consultant and Africa Change Makers Cohort 3,2019 Alumni with over 8 years experience in the Tourism industry.

Hannah Bamwerinde is a 30 year old change maker with and MBA in marketing and is also a travel massive chapter leader. She is involved in the common wealth young leaders training of trainers and is a volunteer for rural development.

In Uganda Tourism has been the leading foreign exchange earner accounting for $1.6 billion unfortunately this has not benefited the local communities and women.We are solving unemployment and  gender equity through promoting local tourism in Uganda. The Ugandan tourism industry is traditional most semi skilled labor jobs being given to men for example tour guiding leaving women with the low quality jobs.

We promote local experiential tourism ,offer tourists with authentic and unique experiences with in our local communities. We train and work with local female guides, culture, food and local experiences to all travelers for social impact.

We are concerned about conserving the environment and benefiting the vulnerable communities in which we operate as 20% of our safari profits are dedicated to these communities. Our sustainable outreach projects include; Hand washing stations in schools, Clean safe drinking-water filters and Tree Planting(for every trip we plant a tree).

In Uganda Tourism has been the leading foreign exchange earner accounting for $1.6 billion unfortunately this has not benefited the local communities According United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 80% of travelers expenditures go to hotels and other international companies not to locals. Out of each $100 spent on a tour by a tourist from a developed country, only $5 stays with locals.

The Ugandan tourism industry also has traditionally been a male dominated field with most workers doing tour guiding and tour operation being male this leaves out many females from earning in a lucrative sector.

We are solving the social issue of Gender equity,Decent work and Economic growth by creating industry plus single use plastic zero waste on all our travel experiences.

The scale of the problem in our community empowerment consists of three dimensions including accountability, capacity building and leaders’ support and about only 20% of women are directly benefiting financially since the biggest number of tourist revenues goes to the well known destinations and doesn't benefit the local people. There are five factors,(1) natural resources; (2) planning; (3) economic concerns; (4) educational needs; and (5) awareness of tourism.

Adventures With Locals is a female owned responsible tourism Company that supports and empowers young local destination guides with leadership skills and training in tourism to create employment and make a difference in local communities by focusing on empowering female guides.

We promote local experiential tourism and offer tourists with authentic and unique experiences with in our local communities by reducing density in the well known tourism sites & taking into consideration sustainable tourism, culture, food and local experiences to all travelers for a social impact.

We are also concerned about conserving the environment and benefiting the vulnerable communities in which we operate as 20% of our safari profits are dedicated to these communities and our sustainable outreach projects include; Hand washing stations in schools, Clean safe drinking-water filters and Tree Planting(for every trip we plant a tree).

Our Project supports and empowers young local destination guides with leadership skills and training in tourism to create employment and make a difference in local communities by focusing on empowering female guides.

We work directly with local communities communities promoting the unique tourism experiences that are off the beaten a path we working on creating a local travel market place where locals can be directly contacted to benefit from tourism.We also train local female guides with skills to earn about tour guiding , travel writing, photography as well as access to different resources.

We are also concerned about conserving the environment and benefiting the vulnerable communities in which we operate as 20% of our safari profits are dedicated to these communities and our sustainable outreach projects include; Hand washing stations in schools, Clean safe drinking-water filters and Tree Planting (for every trip we plant a tree).

Our project is well-aligned to the elevate prize cause we  are more concerned about conserving the environment and benefiting the vulnerable communities in which we operate by empowering women, impact more lives, and inspiring other young women to tackle issues in their own communities – igniting a chain reaction of goodness across the world.

Over and above our sustainable outreach projects, we are fundraising for a water refilling stations in both in National Parks and in town at restaurants and Eco- lodges where tourists can always refill their water bottles as a way to eliminate use of plastic water bottles.

Our project was born out of our passion for sustainable tourism. We are local female guides that love to share our culture and create a social impact made us quit our full time jobs to start.

Our story began with free walking tours in Kampala which is a sustainable, healthy and free way to share our unique culture and history. Through these tours we discovered that locals were not benefiting from tourism therefore we realized the need to bridge the gap between tourists and locals in their communities to participate in sustainable development at a bigger scale and this gave birth to Adventures With Locals.

Adventures With Locals 'U' ltd a responsible tourism company that provides travelers the opportunity to book off the beaten path and authentic travel experiences by supporting local female guides (locals) and empowering local communities in Uganda. Our goal is to provide local guides to employment and access to source of income for communities and travelers with more meaningful experiences.

I am passionate about this project because sustainable tourism moves away from the concept of “do-good” travel and avoids models that allow tourists or local economies to exploit and capitalize on the misfortune of others.  Instead, sustainable tourism is built on the idea that communities can capitalize on their own resources to attract interested travelers. Rather than taking advantage of marginalized groups, sustainable tourism can give those voices a chance to speak out.

Sustainable tourism generates jobs, which generates increases in incomes, which creates options for people—and allows them to improve their quality of life. 

When local people in local communities have a voice in projects that are bigger than they are,there is a greater likelihood that they will gain the confidence and skills to speak out about issues affecting them.

As local communities develop around tourist centers, local families can settle.  The needs for other infrastructure become apparent: schools, health care centers, and roads—and the people to maintain them. 

We are a team of passionate local female guides and story tellers with of strong communication skills, excellent organization capabilities, and a keen ability to manage time are all crucial for being an effective and respected project leader. We also consider the ‘Talent Triangle’ is the perfect breakdown.

We are committed to the growth of local communities as well as women in tourism in a sustainable way.Growing up in communities with little or no resources we understand the need to empower and support people still living in poor conditions.

 The combination of technical project management, leadership, and strategic and business management makes us  well positioned project leaders who are willing to work and manage in a variety of business functions hence well-positioned for this project.

We believe women are our best allies and want them to benefit greatly in tourism through different collaboration and promotion. We also have great experience in mobilizing local communities with strong grass root networks.

We value team work , consistency and hard work with 90% of our team being females are committed to delivering the right narrative which is women achieve great things when we come together. 

Through having the right mindset, not making excuses or taking “no” for an answer, having faith, and being energized by success,you can overcome anything that life has to throw at you.During this lock down with all the hard work we had put in our project when all clients suddenly had to cancel their trips to Uganda and demand for refund. Most of the clients were unhappy,depressed and had issues with one of our team’s first response so together with my co-founder we were tasked with redoing the entire cancellation plan for all trips and asking clients not cancel their trips but postpone for future travel worked late nights after hours,weeks,very challenging because it was our first time having such a difficult time with many cancellations and our one chance to make clients happy again with hopes to travel in the future. Fortunately,we overcame this challenge by working together as a team and all clients were ultimately thrilled with the great ideas and no cancellation charges,and hope to travel again soon once this entire pandemic is over or has eased. We included and informed them about all the new health and government guidelines that has to be following once tourism resume.

Hannah Bamwerinde is a 30 year old change maker with and MBA in marketing and is also a travel massive chapter leader. She is involved in the common wealth young leaders training of trainers and is a volunteer for rural development.

Hannah has an outstanding job working with the rural developing as she created a shop and the local market place where local women are able to sell their crafts and has housed different local women going through abusive relations in kabale.

Rosette Kyomukama Dekool is a a Chapter Leader Travel Massive Uganda,World Literacy Foundation Ambassador Uganda,Be Change Maker Africa 2020,Professional Travel Consultant and Africa Change Makers Cohort 3,2019 Alumni and i am the Co-Founder Auntie Rosette Foundation.

Her past experience is Leading by example,and that has gotten me the best results with the teams that I worked with. Whenever a new project starts, I demonstrate leadership by taking the needed actions to kick the project off and demonstrating what must be done. I make sure that I organize the team in such a way that everybody is on the same page. This way, everybody understands their responsibilities to contribute to the project equally.

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We promote local experiential tourism and offer tourists with authentic and unique experiences with in our local communities by reducing density in the well known tourism sites & taking into consideration sustainable tourism,culture,food and local experiences to all travelers for a social impact. We are also concerned about conserving the environment and benefiting the vulnerable communities in which we operate as 20% of our safari profits are dedicated to these communities and our sustainable outreach projects include;Hand washing stations in schools,Clean safe drinking-water filters and Tree Planting(for every trip we plant a tree).

We are fundraising for a water refilling stations in both in National Parks and in town at restaurants and Eco lodges where tourists can always refill their water bottles as a way to eliminate use of plastic water bottles.

ADVENTURE WITH LOCALS THEORY OF CHANGE 

Activities 

• Training and Employing local female guides through training and our annual internship program.
• Out reach programs for each trip we pant a tree
• We distribute water filters for safe clean drinking water
• We work with different local service providers for our local experiences 

Company

• Creates high quality services and local experiences within tourism
• Provides an authentic local experience through the local networks
• Working closely with local communities creates better grass root networks 

Short term Output

• Young women are able to gain knowledge and employment in the tourism industry.
• Local business are supported hence more willing to take part in conservation
• Grass root networks become a chain through which information can be spread. 
• Spread of responsible tourism practices like green travel practices through tree plating

Company 

• Quality service out put in local experience and culture 
• Local business are more willing to work together 

Long term out put 

• These women are able to branch out  start their own business and support other women as well
• Local communities are economically empowered 
• Go green movement of planting trees grows sustainably 

Company

• Network of local tourism service providers that is high quality and directly benefits the locals.
• Better quality services from the locals through economic empowerment .

We are 3 Women Co-Founders, with 35 local female & male guides in 10 National parks and 4 reserves plus 10 driver guides and 15 community members that we work with. We are 57 now and had hoped to read 100 by end of 2020 if it were not for Covid-19 and hope to have a network  with 650 members that we empower, support and or work with both female and male in the next 5 years.

Our Impact goals are reaching out to more communities and empower more women and guides as well as offer tourism for a social impact.

We are working hard to realize our sustainable out reach projects like Hand washing stations in schools,Clean safe drinking-water filters, water refilling stations in both in National Parks and in town at restaurants and Eco lodges where tourists can always refill their water bottles as a way to eliminate use of plastic water bottles. and Tree Planting (for every trip we plant a tree).

Adventure with locals goals 2020

• To train 200 girls in Uganda online through on the basics of local tourism story telling and responsible travel.
• To distribute 100 water filters to 5 local communities in Uganda
• To plant 200 Trees in Uganda by the end of the year 
• To connect and network with 50 local guides throughout Uganda.
• To profile and promote at least 20 local communities on our online platform 

Adventure with locals goals 2020-2025

• To create a network of 1000 local female guides in Africa 
• To create free educational platform for female guides and entrepreneur
• To create the biggest grassroots network in Africa 

Our Impact goals are reaching out to more communities and empower more women and guides as well as offer tourism for a social impact.

We are working hard to realize our sustainable out reach projects like Hand washing stations in schools,Clean safe drinking-water filters, water refilling stations in both in National Parks and in town at restaurants and Eco lodges where tourists can always refill their water bottles as a way to eliminate use of plastic water bottles. and Tree Planting (for every trip we plant a tree).

Our Business Environment right now tourism has been highly affected by the Covid-19 virus which may take some time to recover. Most experts estimate the next 3-5 years as the nearest possibility this is also still a big challenge.

Weak Brand Identity.Most African brands have a challenge to overcome as a weak brand as many assume that African brands are less superior therefore we are working on a branding strategy to overcome this as well

Insufficient Capital. The business is founded in Uganda which is a developing country the sources of capital are scarce and most of the resources used in the business has been self funding as loans are very hard to access .

Access to global networks is a big challenge. In a developing country most of our networks are rural and we need to access the global networks to learn and replicate best practices in the successful countries/ case studies.

Poor technology is also a big struggle internet for example in Uganda can only be accessed by less than 30% of the total population and yet it is a very useful resource in learning and development.

The road to start up success is so rocky

Our Business Environment. We will deeply concrete on knowledge about our competition and understanding how to travel safe and promote safe travel after COVID-19 through content on social media .

Weak Brand Identity. We need a cohesive brand identity for customers to learn and recognize our products and service easily. Collaborations is also another solution we plan to create partnerships with already established brands as well.

Insufficient Capital. We Plan to have at least two years of solid funding.

Lack of Learned Lessons. Believing in ourselves and our new product or service is essential--but not enough. We will need to surround ourselves with a few select advisors who have been there, done that, and learned the key lessons. Then listen to what they have to say especially with a community of Global Heroes like this.

Association of Uganda Tour operators

Sustainable Travel and Tourism Agenda Kenya

Africa Youth Tourism Forum

Adventures With Locals is a female owned responsible tourism Company with a team of passionate local female guides and story tellers that create, operate promote local,authentic and unique travel experiences for social impact.

• We conduct  free walking tours which aim to offset carbon emission in Uganda
• We offer trips that provide safe, satisfying and fulfilling experiences for visitors without any discrimination on gender or race
• All our experiences are local and we encourage visitors to use local services eat at local restaurants and stay at local accommodation.
• We create trips that promote  environmental awareness respect wildlife ,cultural diversity and improve livelihoods of local communities.
• We offer volunteer and internship program to both locals and non local
• We educate all our clients about the culture of the places they are visiting and encourage zero waste in all destinations .
• We are concerned about conserving the environment and benefiting the local communities by creating tours with a positive impact on both locals and travelers as 20% of our profits are dedicated to these communities. Our sustainable outreach projects include; Hand washing stations in schools, Clean safe drinking-water filters in schools and communities Water refill stations in all tourist destinations in Uganda.( Refill your bottle )and Tree planting (For every trip, we plant a tree) We believe women are our best allies and  want them to benefit greatly in tourism through different collaboration and promotion.

For now, we are self financed and our business plan forecasts financial sustainability through revenues of Tours/Experiences we provide as a company, We are working on securing funding and collaborations necessary to promote our sustainable outreach projects like, Hand washing stations, Safe clean drinking water-filters in schools and communities, Water refill stations in all tourist destinations and Tree planting.

We have a fully developed fundraising plan to enable us access grants and partnerships which will be launched this year.

If you have raised funds for your project or are generating revenue, please provide details. (Optional)

 We started operations in 2020 with Free walking tours which is based on tips and 20% of our profits are given to the communities we operate unfortunately due to Covid-19,our revenues hit a stand still since tourism is the most affected. However, our estimated forecasts shows early sales will be made at the end of the year and for now we are dependent on personal financing.

If you seek to raise funds for your project, please provide details. (Optional)

Our goal is to fundraise for USD 154500 (Grant). We plan to fundraise through seeking grants, arranged annual events, collaboration projects an partnerships as well

We started operations in 2020 with Free walking tours which is based on tips and 20% of our profits are given to the communities we operate unfortunately due to Covid-19,our revenues hit a stand still since tourism is the most affected. However, our estimated forecasts shows early sales will be made at the end of the year and for now we are dependent on personal financing.

Our goal is to fundraise for USD 154500 (Grant).

We plan to fundraise through seeking grants, arranged annual events, collaboration projects an partnerships as well.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VILAxTUj9d2LLlKWMVCUtbNpTZaHyXAladWyvDGK-XM/edit

This is an opportunity to promote Uganda’s local tourism ,connect with like minded entrepreneurs, share our ideas, gain exposure for marketing and business development support,mentorship and access partners for collaborations to promote sustainable tourism.

For along time grassroots organisations like ours have been ignored for funding.Elevate is a platform that bridges that gap and creates access for funding and partnerships.

Therefore empowering women to participate in economic development at all levels and in all sectors is essential to us in building a strong economy and stable society.We hope that Elevate Prize will help us promote women’s empowerment and protect women’s rights through better tourism work. We are on mission to promote equal opportunities for women working in tourism, to inspire increased entrepreneurship for women in tourism, to advance women through education and training, to encourage women to lead in tourism, to protect vulnerable women and those working in home-based tourism enterprises.

Tourism can also help poor women break the poverty cycle through formal and informal employment, entrepreneurship, training, and community betterment. Not all women are benefiting equally from tourism development.

In Uganda where women have less access to education and often have greater household responsibilities,the low barriers to entry,flexible working hours, and part-time work present potential opportunities for employment.

There is an urgent need to work towards the development of a more responsible and sustainable travel and tourism industry,“The challenges that we face are complex and require coordination from all industry stakeholders across all sectors. Only through concerted efforts can we preserve and protect the world for the future generations to come.”

One of our goals is to train women in tourism across East Africa so we need Collaborations in mentorship and coaching facilitation.

We need Partnership with our projects of Hand washing stations,Clean safe drinking water-filters in schools and communities as well as Water refill stations in all national parks where tourists can refill their water bottles for free to aid our single use plastic campaign and Tree Planting.

UNITED NATIONS WORLD TOURISM ORGANISATION.Regarding research and support on supporting grassroots organisations in tourism.

WORLD TRAVEL & TOURISM COUNCIL.To raise awareness about local travel experiences in tourism industry

SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL.Partnership to protect our East Africa's most vulnerable destinations by transforming tourism's impact on nature and people.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL .Women training on documentation,Conservation,Photography and wildlife best practices.

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.Support on training of youth and women in tourism

GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR SUSTAINABILITY.To Partner with a global network working together to ensure the new opportunities of the data revolution to achieve our sustainable Development Goals.

SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL & TOURISM AGENDA.Collaboration in promoting sustainable tourism in East Africa.

8 BILLION TREES.COM.Partnership to promote green sustainable tourism

REFILL MY BOTTLE & SURGE FOR WATER.Creating and promoting sanitation and hygiene in schools and communities plus refill water stations in all tourist destinations in Uganda where tourists can refill their water bottle for free and promote single use plastic.

AFRICA TRAVEL & TOURISM ASSOCIATION.Be part of a trade association that promotes tourism to Africa from all corners of the world.

WORLD FEDERATION OF TOURIST GUIDES.Join a community that will help promote,market and ensure that tourist guides are recognised as the ambassadors of a region.