Travel Neza’s Laura Kagame wants Ugandans to enjoy their own backyard

St Augustine of Hippo once said, “The world is a book and those who don’t travel read only one page.”

For Laura Kagame, 41, life has been built around the intricacies of tour and travel. When she speaks about travel, her eyes light up because of the stories and memories distant places built.

For Kagame, founder of Travel Neza (travel well), planning trips is not just about logistics and bookings; it is about creating transformative experiences that bind people, culture and Uganda.

Her voice carries the ease of someone who lives for travel. She has been travelling since she was a toddler, but instead of chasing the cliché of “the West”, she is interested in showing Ugandans what is beyond that hill in your village.Kagame is determined to show each beautiful corner of this country to her people before they decide to go tour the rest of the world.

“We have waterfalls, wildlife, mountains and a lot of stories the world envies; we are the Pearl of Africa, for the love of God, but many Ugandans have never seen any of these things,” Kagame said.

Her latest ventures, Acacia Wilderness lodge Mweya inside Queen Elizabeth national park, the Acacia Boutique hotel in Mbarara, and Acacia Country inn also in Mbarara are more than just businesses; they are love letters to the land she calls home.

The wilderness lodge in Queen Elizabeth national park allows travelers to wake up to bird songs, and upon opening their windows, are greeted by the sight of animals roaming freely close by.

Kagame has the ethos of planning tour and holiday experiences mostly from her own experience planning her family holiday tours since she was 13 years old. She recalls her father putting her in charge of selecting the places to tour, where to eat at and where to stay the nights during the family tours.

The one tour that really drew out her love for travel, was when their family went to Maasai Mara national park in Kenya. Kagame recalls being very involved in this particular trip unlike others. From this tour, Kagame decided she was going to join the tour and travel industry.

“Maasai dancers jumped so high, their feet were above our heads,” she recalled. “I think that was the first time I paid attention to everything. Up to now, I can remember everything that we did every day when we went to Maasai Mara; the conversations, the joy and the planning that went into it.”

She tells her story to The Observer over a hot cup of tea with muffins on a beige set of super comfy sofas in her living room at Kensington Residences.

“I remember being completely amazed by how much thought and detail went into making people feel happy and cared for while on holiday. It wasn’t just about the destination; it was about the joy, the laughter, the togetherness.

That moment with my family stands out as the happiest I have ever been with them. From that time on, even as I transitioned into secondary school at the age of 13, I knew deep down that I wanted to be part of creating those kinds of experiences for others. I couldn’t fully define it then, but I knew I wanted to be in travel and hospitality. That early spark grew into a clear passion for tourism, one I have carried with me ever since.”

EDUCATION

Laura Kagame attended Victoria Nile primary school in Jinja; for her secondary school, she went to Mt St Mary’s Namagunga and King’s College Budo. With her desire and passion to study something about tourism, hospitality and travel, Kagame enrolled for a bachelor’s degree at Midrand Graduate Institute, South Africa.

Her parents chose it specifically for its tourism department, its project-based program and strong emphasis on internships that equip students with the knowledge to understand the metrics surrounding tourism, travel and hospitality.

For her master’s degree, she holds an MBA in hospitality management from Stamford International University, Thailand.

STARTING TRAVEL NEZA

When Kagame had just finished her undergraduate studies, she recalls that she got the opportunity to work at Flights Special that specialized in creating holiday packages for tourists.

“These holiday packages included flights, accommodation, airport pickups, and everything that makes a vacation seamless and enjoyable. I was never interested in selling just a flight. I wanted to take people on full experiences. I wanted to be there from the start to finish. It was always about curating the whole experience for me, not just getting someone to the airport and saying goodbye,” she said.

The Flights Special holiday company focused on training and while working with them, she got opportunities to travel and explore Southern Africa, which provided “an understanding about travel logistics, and refining the kind of traveler experience I wanted to offer others”.

Kagame later got the opportunity to work with RwandaAir as their sales manager at the age of 26, since they had a partnership with Flights Special.

Travellers on a foreign trip managed by Travel Neza under the Neza Club product

“One of the things that excited me the most was the idea of free travel. I thought I would get to explore the world even more. Ironically, it was my family who ended up enjoying most of the free tickets while I remained grounded due to the demanding nature of the job. Despite that, I always held onto one promise I made to myself: if I ever got posted in Uganda, I would start my own holiday company. And when I finally got posted back home in Uganda, within six months, I had resigned and launched Travel Neza in 2017.”

Through Travel Neza, Kagame has created travel packages specifically tailored for Ugandans, including destination weddings. You can tell by the paintings, sculptures and the way she decorated her house with collectables from various destinations that she has traveled widely.

Décor ranging from the shot stubbing spears to sculptures of Buddha, and an aquarium with two koi fish makes her home quite unique. Kagame says when she started Travel Neza, she decided to make her niche outbound travel – taking Ugandans abroad, ensuring they got exposed.

“At that point, it was still a very new concept, and we created a niche in curating packaged holidays that included payment plans for people travelling to places like Dubai, Mombasa, Greece and Thailand,” she noted.

But everything changed for Kagame and Travel Neza when Covid-19 hit the world and put a stop to international travel.

“Covid was quite a double-edged sword for me. I will never forget March 20 when the airports closed and we had a very big group going for a destination wedding in two weeks. They had fully paid, and I remember them calling to find out what next,” she said.

The pandemic forced Kagame to rethink every aspect of the operations of her Travel Neza, and she noted that consumer behaviour underwent a complete transformation; virtually everyone, even grandmothers, became proficient in using the internet.

“The shift was massive; suddenly, a much larger number of people were shopping and making payments online. This change prompted us to revamp the Travel Neza website, focusing on enhancing user experience and integrating online payment systems to meet the new demand.

It pushed us to fully embrace e-commerce and innovate beyond our traditional scope. At the time, there was a great deal of uncertainty about the future of travel. This uncertainty sparked new ideas, leading us to diversify into the hotel industry. Surprisingly, our entry into hospitality proved to be a turning point. We’ve never looked back and often find ourselves wondering why we hadn’t ventured into it earlier,” she added.

Kagame said promoting domestic holidays was one of the avenues her travel company looked into during the pandemic era; it opened up even more growth opportunities, and she realized that more Ugandans had taken an interest in touring their country.

“We made a deliberate decision to fully invest in domestic travel, and before long, we became the most popular and highest-volume local travel company in Uganda. When road travel between districts reopened, I already had a calendar of monthly holiday trips lined up from July to December.

We organized bus tours to Fort Portal, Lake Mburo, Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls. At the time, international airports were still closed, and even when they reopened, many countries were not accepting travelers from Uganda. This created an opportunity to shift our focus from outbound travel on to domestic tourism, encouraging Ugandans to explore the beauty within their own country.”

She was surprised to discover how many Ugandans had never traveled locally. “For me, this kind of travel had always been second nature, growing up taking spontaneous family trips to places like Jinja and Mbarara, and the realization that Ugandans were not big on travel within their country ignited a passion to help Ugandans truly see Uganda.”

UGANDANS THINK TRAVEL IS EXPENSIVE

Looking at changing the mindset of Ugandans who think that tourism and travel are expensive, Kagame introduced the Neza club and Neza digital wallet, an innovation she has put in place to ensure that travel is more accessible and affordable for the average Ugandan through offering yearly calendar destinations, enabling clients to plan and pay in advance.

Staff of Travel Neza

The Neza Club and the digital Neza Wallet have helped her create a strong community of consistent travelers, many of whom started with local trips and have now progressed to exploring international destinations, hence changing how Ugandans view and experience travel.

Speaking about her most memorable trip planned yet, she reminisced the trip she planned for tourists visiting Cape Town, which was one of the earliest trips she planned for clients subscribed to the Neza Club.

“I used to spend every birthday in Cape Town, making it my special place. Returning there with the group felt like sharing a part of my favourite spots and cherished memories. Cape Town’s beauty is breathtaking; every corner is scenic. Watching the awe on people’s faces as they experienced it for the first time was incredibly fulfilling,” Kagame said.

She believes the sector is finally embracing a more focused and innovative approach by identifying and promoting what is uniquely Ugandan.

“There’s a shift from generic safari packages toward cultural and experiential tourism, including group trips, lake activities, ziplining, canopy walks, and boat rides.”

And she is still here for the long haul, to experience and share it all.