Five questions with Pugu Hills Eco Cultural Tourism

Pugu Hills Eco Cultural Tourism is a tourism company located in Kisarawe, Tanzania. We had an opportunity to speak to the founder of the company, Sairis Lucia Bugeraha, and here is what she had to share about tourism marketing, being a woman-led company and the domestic tourism industry.

1. Tell us a little bit about your company and how you started

Pugu Hills Eco Cultural Tourism is a community-based tourism located at Kisarawe District Coast region. The company initially started in August 2016 but gained its legal paper in December 2018, and gained her first client an Italian tourists on June 2017.

We are registered by Tanzania Tourist Board under cultural tourism program. We offer local and natural experiences at Pugu Hills Forest Reserve and Kisarawe District respectively. Our local experience focuses on promoting unique Zaramo cultural experiences such as food preparation, beauty and herbal treatment, traditional dances, and local farm and art and craft as unique cultural tourism product that are being sold to the tourists.

Natural experience involves hiking to Pugu Hills Forest Reserve, canoeing to Minaki swamp within Pugu Hills Forest Reserve, bird watching and healing in nature walk within Pugu Hills Forest Reserve.

We are a gender, community and environment sensitive tourism enterprise that provide alternative tourism solutions to city dwellers and tourists that have limited time in Dar es salaam.

2. What are some challenges that you are facing being a women-owned company?

As a lady in tourism, I face challenges from men who dominate the tourism industry in Tanzania. Officials from the industry sometimes question my credibility and ability to deliver as a female tourism service provider. On some occasions, my female tour guides are being underrated by some visitors thinking that they will not perform as well as male tour guides.

3. Are there any conservation efforts you are working on in Pugu? Or in how you conduct the work?

Yes, I did a One Step One Bottle Away campaign in 2019-2020. We were collecting plastic bottles from the forest and turning them into souvenir plant bottles to give to our clients and take $1 from each booked tour as posho to the community group that was collecting the bottles. 

This program ended in January 2020 as the forest authority are now taking care of the plastic within the forest park.

In June 2021 we are expecting to launch a new conservation program to commemorate International Tourism Day. This will be a sustainable program that will be revealed first week of June.

4. What’s the share of customers you get between Tanzanians and non-Tanzanians, and has that changed over the last year?

The share is a fare square for the first quarter of 2021 if you are to compare it with the past 2 years. The rise of the millennials, the digital generations has a big share in the rise of the domestic market in comparison to the past 2 years. Mostly they are coming from Dar es salaam. We had few cases visitors came from Dodoma and Zanzibar.

5. How do you market your company?

Through social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, online travel platforms like Tripadvisor and international tourism festivals, Swahili International Tourism Expo site, local expos like Saba Saba, Jamafest, offline attending any worthy gathering be it pop up markets, corporate dinners or events that bring together my potential market so that I can pitch.

(Bonus question) 6. What would you like to see more of in the tourism industry?

I would like to see more Tanzanians visiting the beautiful destinations within their country and feel proud of them.

I would like to see local investors, tour operators and tourism enthusiasts given priority, cooperation and the credit they deserve from the Government and leaders that are directly or indirectly involved in tourism industry.

I would love to see real travel and tourism professionals given enough support to run the tourism industry professionally, and to see the industry taken seriously in terms of professional training, ethics, and etiquettes of travel, and finally to see the tourism industry given priority among service providers in the industry.

You can check out Pugu Hill Eco Cultural Tourism on their website , Facebook, Instagram and via phone at +255 653 901 193. You can also email the founder Sairis on sairisbugeraha@gmail.com.