Tourists on a boat cruise on River Nile in Murchison Falls National Park, the biggest park in northern Uganda. Many potential tourists destined for Uganda have changed their mind about visiting the country due to the recent spate of bomb attacks in the country. PHOTO/EDGAR R. BATTE. 

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Tourism sector shaken by Kampala twin bombings

What you need to know:

  • The sector is already limping because of two lockdowns and a messy Covid-19 testing process at Entebbe International Airport.

On the night of Saturday, October 23, a little over a month ago, the first of a series of bomb blasts exploded in a bar in Komamboga, some eight kilometres north of Kampala City. 

The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack that came just days after the UK warned of a terror attack in Uganda.
More bomb blasts followed only weeks apart, with two of them executed by suicide bombers. 

As news of the bombings spread, the tourism sector, which was already limping because of a messy Covid-19 testing processes at Entebbe airport, took a beating. But the question has been just how badly?

Cancelled deals
Ms Doris Meixner, a Ugandan tour operator of German origin, and both owner and director of Chameleon Hill Lodge in Bwindi, says:

“We signed an agreement with a new agent for 2022. Yesterday, she told me they changed their mind due to the [Kampala City] bombings and will only put Uganda in their programme from 2023.” 

Ms Meixner, who runs a tour company, Across Africa Holidays, specialises in connecting German tourists to Uganda. 
She says German tour operators are her primary clients.

“I lost a full year with a new agent that I spent a lot of time getting on board. They were ready to include Uganda in their 2022 catalogue tours with 12 departures, 12 tourists per departure,” she says.

“That means Uganda just lost 144 tourists. That might seem few, but those 144 go back and market Uganda to their friends, families and neighbours. That is just one example,” Ms Meixner adds.

She says this is part of several other cancellations of individual bookings and postponement to the end of 2022. 

All the above change in fortune came within only three days after the twin bombings in Kampala City on November 16.

“I think everyone in tourism is affected. However, I can only speak for the German market since this is my main market. It’s tragic. But the demand for PCR tests on arrival is just as bad. We received cancellations as bad as these when the Covid-19 test was introduced at Entebbe airport,” she says.

Lost opportunity
This swing around in tourism fortune contrasts sharply with the first half of 2021, which was seen as godsend by the industry players in Uganda.

At the time, people could not easily travel to southern African countries or even Kenya and Tanzania as the countries had been placed on the Covid-19 red list. For instance, Uganda had never been (and still isn’t) on the red list for Germany. 

This comparative advantage gave Uganda a massive boost with arrivals shooting up until the Covid-19 testing started at Entebbe. 

“Now we are falling behind because travellers have better choices. You chose the destination that is the easiest to travel to in terms of Covid regulations and also the safest. And Uganda is neither of the two today,” Ms Meixner says. 

But the range of problems for Uganda’s tourism sector players go beyond the number of cancellations. 

Covid-19 testing
To tour operators, the bigger problem is not receiving new bookings. They say while this is difficult to measure or prove, it is the malaise that is killing tourism industry. 

“I have three holiday houses in Cape Town. There is no PCR test on arrival or departure. Recently, the UK took South Africa off the red list, since then, my houses are fully booked until March, throughout the summer,” Ms Meixner says. 

“Those are all guests that could have chosen to travel to Uganda, but why should they? Most First World people are vaccinated. On top of that, they bring a negative test from entering the airplane. Why then ask for another one on arrival, and yet another on departure?” she wonders.

“Of course, people will chose other African countries over us!” Meixner adds.

Reduced inquiries
Mr Amos Wekesa, the proprietor of Great Lakes Safaris and Uganda Lodges, says the cancellations started barely 30 minutes after the first bomb attack for some of his colleagues. While the cancellations have not been significant for him, Mr Wekesa says there has been significant reductions in inquiries. 

Amos Wekesa, proprietor of Great Lakes Safaris and Uganda Lodges. PHOTO/FILE

“The moment a prospective tourist hears that there is insecurity in a country of interest, there is no point of even inquiring about it. So there has been a drastic reduction in inquiries for me. My weekly inquiries have reduced from 20 prior to the bomb blasts, down to only five inquiries after the attacks,” he says. 

Mr Wekesa says while the bomb blasts have affected the tourism sector, the lack of marketing the industry by Uganda is its worst malaise.

Poor mitigation strategy
“Every part of the world has its own problems. Whether Dubai [in United Arab Emirates], USA, or the UK; each of those countries has its own problems. However, unlike Uganda, those countries have contingency budgets to cater for negative news. Once something like this happens, they start pushing positive news about the country. That is what we don’t do as a country,” Mr Wekesa says.

“In Uganda, bad news continues piling, one after another over years until we start looking chaotic.  The problem is that there is no focus at the national level to redeem the situation. Even our neighbour, Rwanda, doesn’t wait for such things to happen. They are always pushing positive public relations news about the country. And it works,” he adds.

Case of Mexican TV star 
A few weeks ago, Uganda hosted Mexican TV star Arturo Islas Allende. The 33-year-old man has 16 million followers on social media and reaches an average of 150 million people on Facebook alone per month. 

Allende produces content for Netflix and TikTok and is a brand ambassador for Adidas. 
He knows many celebrities and followers that he would influence to visit Uganda. 

Mr Wekesa says such celebrities who visit Uganda on their own initiative should be brought on board and paid by government to do marketing for the country. 

“The television star may have marketed Uganda on his own volition, but going forward, he won’t go out of his way to help the country with its PR needs,” Mr Wekesa says. 

“Dubai puts aside millions of dollars for celebrity influencers. They are already rich, but they must market their country or else, the tourists start forgetting about Dubai. MTN as a telecom company spends $7m (Shs25b) per year on advertisement in Uganda, not so that people can know about it, (because everybody does) but because that is how marketing works. You must keep in your clients faces or you lose them,” he says.

“If we market this country very well, imagine we get a million tourists a year and each tourist spends here eight days. On each day, each tourist eats two eggs, by the time the tourist goes back, he has eaten 16 eggs. Multiply that by one million tourists and you have 16 million eggs. How many farmers, feed sellers, transporters have we uplifted? That is what brings economic growth,” Mr Wekesa says. 

Background
Uganda is endowed with a wide range of tourism resources, including biodiversity, varied landscapes, and cultural and religious heritage.

Uganda tourism has been intricately linked to the country’s natural history, exploration, trade, and colonial history since the 19th century. In the Financial Year 2018–2019, tourism earned Uganda’s GDP Shs5.6 trillion as of December 2019 from 1.6 million tourists (World Bank 2019).