Over 250 Israeli tourists jet into country
Interaction. President Museveni (in white shirt) meets the American Jewish community which is in Kampala for an awareness visit at State House Entebbe, yesterday. PHOTO BYABUBAKER LUBOWA
Kampala. At least 250 tourists from Israel jetted into the country yesterday to tour various sites. The tourists, who came aboard a direct chartered plane of EL AL, landed at the old airport. They were cleared by the security and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) before checking into their different hotels.
The outgoing chief executive officer (CEO) of Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), Mr Stephen Asiimwe, was quick to say the tourists did not come because of the recently launched controversial ‘Miss Curvy Uganda’ beauty contest but there had been talks behind the scenes in Israel for this kind of visit to happen.
“It’s true a chartered plane jetted into the country at around 1pm with about 250 people from Tel Aviv, the capital city of Israel who are going to be touring our country until Saturday,” Mr Asiimwe said by telephone last evening.
“Uganda Tourism Board has been doing a lot of promotions on tourism outside Uganda. There have been talks in Israel to have direct flights to Uganda and this particular one landed at the old airport. This is a visit that will attract more people from Israel and also the rest of the world,” he added.
The CEO added that their first tourism place was the old building at the old airport where they remembered their fallen comrades when President Idi Amin besieged it in 1976 and that they were emotional.
According to Mr Asiimwe, the Israeli tourists will be visiting the national parks, the Jewish community in Mbale, the Source of River Nile in Jinja and other cultural places across the country.
He also said the visit by the tourists is good for the country as they will be injecting into the economy a lot of cash during their stay.
In a brief statement released last evening, Mr Asiimwe quoted their team leader, Ms Tali Yativ, as to have said the Israeli tourists were excited to be in Uganda, the Pearl of Africa.
The visit by a Israeli tourists comes at the time when the Tourism minister, Prof Ephraim Kamuntu, is leading a contingent from UTB and other private sector players in Tel Aviv, to participate in the International Mediterranean Tourism Market, Tel Aviv-Yafo.
Israel has a population of about 8 million people and a GDP of $400 billion and per capita income of about $40,000, hence a good tourism market to tap into.
