As a stakeholder, Maria stands out due to her passion in presenting ideas and views about how the industry should shape with focus on community tourism, and how communities can be integrated closer to mainstream tourism.

Maria has also attended several industry-related training and international Workshops, Fairs and Conferences. She is well recognized in the tourism sector.

Through COBATI, Maria is spearheading establishment of a network of homesteads and grassroots tourist attractions in South Western Uganda capable of delivering quality hospitality services and products.

The idea of homestead tourism is uniquely associated with Maria, she is recognized as an advocate for increased awareness of players in the sector of the opportunities that can be generated if community tourism products were linked to the various tourism circuits in Uganda. Maria's idea is that through the community tourism experience, there can be more enjoyment for travelers as well as increased gains to communities.

The uniqueness of Maria's work is the focus on exposing and educating communities on the potential of the endowments surrounding them. Such endowments include communities way of life (treasure of culture that can be translated to unique experience for tourists), historic sites, and the natural resources that communities hardly ever notice.

As a Director for COBATI, she has created a niche as a capacity developer for communities to come up with innovative ideas that generate income through tourism and that help them use their endowments that were otherwise idle. She is hence sourced out and recognized for offering consultancies in this area.

Maria recognizes that for her ideas to work she needs strategic networks and partnerships at industry and market level, she has therefore since 2000 relentlessly pursued with energy and enthusiasm to collaborate with various organizations interested in pro-poor tourism including SNV, AWF/ IGCP, and UNDP among others.

Maria looks at her work as a personal mission .She hence potrays passion and commitment. She is recognized as a champion for community issues in the industry. She is brave and is not afraid to challenge the status quo.

Maria is an alumni of Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center (MCTC). She attended a training course in Rural Tourism development in 1997. Maria links her success in Community Based Tourism CBT to the knowledge and skills she acquired from MCTC.