Tourism: The missed opportunity

I spent a few days in Jerusalem and it was impossible to avoid noticing that Israel takes tourism very seriously. From my little experience, tourism is one of the things that Israelis and Palestinians agree on. The tour operators from Israel work well with the guides in Palestine to give visitors a seamless tour experience.

The main tourist attractions in Israel are the sandy beaches and holy sites. But embedded within that are innovative efforts by locals to earn money from visitors. One of the things that struck me was a 12-year-old boy who stood with a sheep outside the gate of Shepherds Field (the place where angels told shepherds about the birth of Jesus). The boy charged a dollar for every picture and he had a steady stream of people who wanted a picture next to a real sheep!

2017 was the best year ever for Israeli tourism with an estimated 3.6m tourists visiting. The country earned an impressive $5.8b from the tourism industry which employ 200,000 Israelis. Available figures show an expected 20 per cent increase in number of visitors in 2018 over the 2017 level.

Uganda, on the other hand, got 1.3m visitors and earned about $710m during 2017. The good news is Uganda still has a lot of room to grow its tourism. That room for growth can be filled when we take certain actions.
Uganda needs a tourism communication strategy to change the mindset of political leaders and ordinary citizens about tourism.

Uganda needs an integrated tourism development plan that will develop and maintain sites, infrastructure and develop service providers such as guides and transporters. The beauty about tourism is that it can contribute to the conservation of the environment, culture and history.

James Abola is a business and finance consultant.

Email: [email protected]