Botanic Garden Tourism and its Potential as Tourist’s Attraction in Karongi District

Abstract

Purpose: Botanic a garden, usually open to the public, where a wide range of plants are grown for scientific, education and tourism purposes.  The objectives of this project were to create the botanic garden tourism in Bwishyura sector, investigate its market demand, to explore how it can help in biodiversity conservation, improving the life of surrounding local citizens and protect the environment in the region.

Methodology: The study used mixed method. Random and convenience sampling technics were used to sample 30 respondents from 50 target population. The collected data was analyzed using statistical tables to verify hypotheses of this study.

Findings: The study found that there were no botanic gardens in the study area. Other indicators such as motivation of travellers for visiting botanic garden, level of interest, affordable entrance fees and visiting frequencies in the last twelve months were presented. Having this botanic garden in Bwishyura sector brings many benefits to the area such as education on plants and animal life, bringing tourists and day trippers, increasing the value of nearby properties, promote scientific and horticulture research.

Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy:  The study recommend local authorities and stakeholders to encourage the investors to invest in botanic garden tourism, to increase the awareness of this attraction to the local citizens and visitors. This study also calls for business persons and tourism government institutions to take advantage of these findings as it explain benefits they might target.