The Senior Presidential Advisor in charge of Special Operations, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has urged Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) to do more to promote the country’s tourism industry.
Muhoozi, who spent the festive season with his family at Kabalega Falls National Park, also known as Murchison Fall National Park, said he was “happy to see that tourist numbers now exceed those in 2019, before the pandemic.”
Officials records show Uganda’s international tourist numbers rose to 814,508 in 2022 compared to 473,085 in 2021.
He, however, quickly added: “With a little more improvement in facilities and marketing the numbers can go a lot higher. I thank UWA and UTB for the work they are doing in protecting our wildlife resources and marketing them. We can achieve a lot more.”
Despite significant investment in traditional marketing approaches, Uganda remains relatively unknown to global tourists as seen by the country’s low ranking in general travel-related searches even as it is more competitive in the niche segments like hiking and ecotourism.
Even as tourism is one of the country’s top foreign- exchange earners and a significant job creator, the sector lags behind its regional peers, remains very sensitive to shocks, and budget allocations for the sector are always reduced which further compromises its ability to fulfil potential.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which drastically curtailed global travel, the sector contributed about 6 percent of Uganda’s GDP, far below the levels of Rwanda (11 percent), Tanzania (10 percent), and Kenya (8 percent).
The World Bank recently said the tourism sector is not promoted strategically, and the country’s undifferentiated product offering means it is constantly playing catch up to better- known and more developed regional destinations such as Kenya and Tanzania.
The Bank said Uganda’s new approach should be “designed to increase both tourism arrivals, average spending, and repeat visitation. Although wildlife and nature will remain central to Uganda’s value proposition, broadening and diversifying its tourism products will be crucial to maximise the sector’s impact on employment and growth.”
Pearl of Africa
Muhoozi recalled that Winston Churchill called Uganda the ‘Pearl of Africa’.
However, Muhoozi said he “would go one more and call it (Uganda) the ‘Jewel of the World’”.
Currently, tourists are drawn by Uganda’s abundant natural and cultural assets ranging from the world’s largest population of mountain gorillas to rare bird species and thriving local cultures and arts.
However, there is considerable untapped potential for agrotourism in coffee and tea estates, and cultural tourism by capitalising on local art, food, sports, and other aspects of Uganda’s rich cultural diversity.
In the World Economic Forum’s 2019 Report on Travel and Tourism Competitiveness, Uganda ranked among Sub-Saharan Africa’s top five destinations for cultural resources and business travel.
Over 670,000 workers are directly employed in the tourism sector, or about 7.4 percent of the labour force.
