tourism, growth, Uganda

Tourism stakeholders in the country have converged in Mbale Town to mark the World Tourism Day today.
This year’s theme: “Tourism and Community Development”, is aimed at raising awareness of how tourism can be an engine for community development, one of the building blocks of a more sustainable future for all.
The event, a routine annual tourism celebration across the globe, has become a gauge that allows Uganda’s tourism players to appreciate their achievements and deliberate on the future of the country’s tourism.

Playing big economic role
Although many times underrated by government, one key contributor to the economic revival of Uganda has been the tourism industry, which now garners more than $1 billion (about Shs2.5 trillion), hence Bank of Uganda recently declaring it as Uganda’s top forex-exchange earner.
Latest figures from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics also indicate that tourist arrivals in Uganda are going up and demand is growing, with around 1.3 million visitors expected this year.
The minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Maria Mutagamba, has predicted an even brighter future for Uganda’s tourism. “The visitors have increased but our five-year goal is to get ten times more than we’re getting today,” she said.
The minister and everyone in the industry have a right to be optimistic. If you created an index of natural beauty per square-kilometer, Uganda will certainly top that list.
This is the Pearl of Africa, also described by Lonely Planet as “Africa Condensed” for offering pretty much everything Africa has to offer
But Uganda’s natural endowment and its fame, recently hoisted by a number of travel accolades, is not matched by its position in the world of tourism.

Turn in events
Just around the 1960s, Uganda was the most visited country in East Africa. That has since changed as the Pearl of Africa lost ground to its neighbours Kenya and Tanzania, thanks majorly to the 1970s-80s civil wars. But even after recovering from unrests, we are still struggling to keep up with baby destinations like Rwanda, that barely has anything beyond a few mountain gorillas and the genocide tourism.
For how long can we blame former president Idi Amin for Uganda’s problems – at least the tourism related ones?
Mr Vivian Lyazi, a senior official in the ministry of tourism, says the Amin image has been so compellingly hard to shake off but now the world knows Uganda is past the dictator’s reign and it is arguably one of the safest destinations in Africa today.
“What Ugandans do best is talk, talk and talk but our neighbours talk and also put their money where their mouth is,” said Amos Wekesa, a tourism entrepreneur and Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) member.
Someone could argue that with about 1.3 million visitors coming to Uganda compared to Kenya’s 1.5 million, we are not so far off the mark. But arrivals are not the only meaningful metric here.
Different visitors come for different things and their spending certainly differ. Some come for short trips, others stay longer; some spend a large amount of money, others stick to a tight budget.
But while we fight for the few thousand foreigners coming into the region, some countries have managed to establish strong domestic tourism strategies to increase on their general income generation.
“Domestic tourism is the back bone of many countries, but Uganda has neglected it,” said Aggrey Kamu, an economist. “Ugandans feel the destination is too expensive for them and there are no incentives, and most importantly, there seems to be no one to explain to them how great is this destination.”
Newly-selected UTB chief executive officer, Stephen Asiimwe, however, says, they are working out a plan to reverse this trend.
“Domestic tourism is very much our focus,” he said. “And we have a few promotions and projects in the pipeline to increase on the number of Ugandans visiting our tourist sites.”

Some hope
UTB and the ministry have also embarked on a series of activities, including e-marketing, engaging the local media, organising and participating in local, regional and international events, creating promotional materials like brochures, magazines and DVDs, organising familiarisation tours, establishment of tourism offices in major source markets and developing a domestic tourism promotion strategy.
The diversification and application of dissimilar modalities of specialised tourism will most definitely widen the market. It goes beyond the traditional offer of wildlife safaris and beaches and brings in culture, leisure and professional gatherings.
The backdrop for this setting is the strategic plans announced recently by the new UTB leadership led by board chairman James Tumusiime.
In this context we find the planned introduction of several activities like golf tourism; regulation and classification of tourist facilities, domestic tourism campaigns, and the strengthening of the private-public sector correlation.

Challenges
Uganda has more than 3,200 established tourism sites but transport to most of them remains a big challenge, even though it has been improving, especially the highways connecting Kampala to upcountry towns.
“Besides improving the roads, we also need to bring back the Uganda Airlines. A national career goes a long way to marketing a tourist destination,” Bonifence Byamukama, a tour operator, said.
It may take some time before Uganda catches up with the likes of South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania and or even surpass them, but the Pearl of Africa has every right to clamour or a bigger slice of the pie. With the right infrastructure, safety and security, and effective communication of the country’s attractions, the country of the Crested Crane will fly.

Some of Uganda’s best attractions

With the dense misty forests, source of the Biblical River Nile, more than half of world’s mountain gorillas (pictured right), snow-peaked mountains, glassy lakes, tree-climbing lions, most bird species on continent, world’s best white-water rafting, best weather around, sprawling savannas, some of the most hospitable folks around, unique religious sites, delicious organic food and drink among other things, Uganda is a place like no other.

[email protected]