UGANDA’S TOURISM REGISTERS AN INCREASE IN REVENUE

Uganda’s tourism has once again registered an increase in revenue in the 2018/2019 financial year whereby over Shs 5.8 trillion ($1.6 billion) was received. This makes the country’s tourism sector the top foreign exchange earner.
Report from the Annual Tourism Sector Performance for the financial year 2018/2019 indicate that tourism revenue increased from Shs 5.3 trillion ($1.45b) in the 2017/2018 financial year to Shs 5.8 trillion ($1.6 billion) in the 2018/2019 financial year. This report also indicated that an increase in the number of tourist arrivals was registered from 1,402,409 tourists in the 2017/2018 year to 1,505,669 tourists in 2018/2019 financial year. From these statistics, it was also stated that the tourism sector contributed to over 7.7% of the total National Gross Domestic product as well as up to 6.7% of the total national employment after creating up to 667.600 indirect and direct jobs.

The Tourism Minister-Prof Ephraim Kamuntu during the publicizing of the report in Uganda’s Capital (Kampala) associated the success with the upgraded marketing strategies. “The improvement is mainly attributed to increased marketing, understanding as well as the participation of the tourism sector. No other sector within Uganda can yield such tremendous levels of revenue to the economy like tourism” he pointed.

The Minister during the annual review also made it known that more effort has been put on promoting domestic tourism with so far four promotion drives as well as 22 events have been put together. Other improvements within the tourism sector include registration of over 2066 accommodation facilities and licensing of over 56 tour and travel companies. This adds to the already existing 300 registered tour operators, guides and tour companies. Other changes in the sector are renovations on the Ankole King’s Palace as well as Uganda Museum and the 20-year master plan that was drafted to guide different investments on the mighty Nile River.
As far as tourism infrastructure is concerned, Prof Kamuntu said that eight of the sixty-five listed tourism roads have been finalized and currently total to 765 kilometers. Also, other fifteen roads totaling to more than 900 kilometers are still under works. The 10 National Parks of Uganda has also registered a 14% increase in tourist numbers.

However, even with the registered achievements and positive changes, a number of challenges are still faced by the tourism sector and these include difficulty in convincing tourists to stay longer within the country’s tourist destinations. “Even when the number of international tourists is increasing, it is difficult to entice them to prolong their stay in tourist sites and even make repeated visits with the average stay being seven days”. Said Ms. Doreen Katusiime, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Tourism.

Other challenges include poaching, habitat destruction and climate change which inserts a lot of pressure to the exciting tourism resources. Ms. Doreen also pointed out that its high time tourism sector players addressed the growing demand of the current tourism market. She is optimistic that this will grow the industry and make it flourish within the country, region, continent and globally.