Tourism can fetch Uganda $12b annually

Gorillas in a forest. These are one of the rare animal species that attract tourists. File Photo.

Players in the tourism industry have been advised to diversify tourism products and improve tourism infrastructure to attract tourists and reap big from the country’s enormous tourism potential.

Dr Patrick Birungi, head of Strategic Planning at the National Planning Authority said that Uganda has potential to reap over $12 billion annually from the tourism sector if promoted to become among the leading top 10 tourism destinations in the world.

Last year, Uganda received 1,151,000 visitor arrivals, fetching the country $805 million (about 1.96 trillion) in foreign exchange, up from $662 million (about Shs1.6 trillion) in 2010, according to the tourism minister, Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu.

This, however, means that the country falls short of the $12 billion by approximately $11.2 billion (about Shs27.3 trillion).

Dr Birungi who was speaking at a consultative meeting to review the draft National Vision 2040 in Kampala, last week, said Uganda needs to construct a tourism ring road covering all tourism areas in the country, construct airfields in key tourism sites and ICT services.

The National Vision 2040 seeks to transform Uganda from a peasant and low income country to a competitive upper middle income country within 30 years, with a per capita income of $9,500 (about Shs23.2 million).

Uganda’s per capita income
Currently, Uganda’s per capita income is $506 (about Shs1.2 million), among the lowest in the world.

Although endowed with the largest number of primates such as mountain gorillas – one of the rare animal species on earth –wonderful waterfalls, beautiful scenery and birds among others, it is the least visited compared to her counterparts in the East African region.

Players have attributed this to limited funds to market and sell the country as a tourism destination of choice in key source markets such as Germany, United States of America, the United Kingdom and East Asian countries among others.

“We have diversified tourism products such as gorillas, cultures, birds and mountains among others but there are limited funds for marketing campaigns and the roads leading to such sites are also bad,” Dr Andrew Seguya, the Uganda Wildlife Authority acting executive director said.

2013/14 allocation
The tourism ministry was allocated Shs13 billion for the 2012/13 financial year, a slight increase compared to the Shs12.86 billion allocated to the sector in the 2011/12 financial year.

Dr Seguya added that government can give tax incentives to aviation companies so as to invest in domestic flights to ease transportation of tourists within the country.