5 Reasons That Are Surely Unlocking Uganda’s Tourism industry Potential

If you’ve been carefully observing Uganda’s tourism industry, it one of the few business sectors that have realized leap and after leap in terms of growth and its no wonder that as of today its the leading forex earner for the dear motherland as it is projected to generate close to USD 2 billion by 2020. Back in 2008, Uganda could only collect 580 million USD. In the financial year of 2010/2011 the tourism revenue earnings increased to 594m USD, 2012-13 financial year realized another leap to 805m USD, and the 2013-2014 financial year saw the country’s revenues from tourism cross the 1 million USD mark as it collected 1.003million USD form tourism. As of 2016/2017, the number of tourists visiting Uganda had crossed also the 1 million mark with 1.4 million tourists both foreign and domestic tourists taking a Uganda safari to the various Uganda wildlife safari destinations of the country. These managed to bring a combined revenue of about 1.4 billion USD and this makes tourism the country’s biggest forex earner also directly contributing 2.9% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product and 7.3% of the country’s GDP indirectly. This, however, hasn’t come easy for the tourism but rather through strategic implementations of well thought out plans that have been carefully crafted by both local and foreign tourism experts in order to see Uganda experience a meteoric rise in its tourism earnings.

Some of the implementations that have carried out include the following

Increased government funding- In the 2019/2020 financial budget, the government allocated in ugx 193.7bn to the tourism sector for marketing visit Uganda as an Africa safari destination and improving key strategic infrastructures that have a direct impact on tourism such as airfields in the various parts of Uganda and roads to improve accessibility to the various tour Uganda attractions around the country.
The government also revamped the formerly defunct Uganda airlines in order to ease transportation of foreign visitors who would wish to engage in a safari Uganda at a relatively cheaper cost than foreign airlines would. As of now air Uganda operates flights in numerous east Africa destinations such as Nairobi and Mombasa Kenya, Bujumbura Burundi, Juba-South Sudan, Arusha and Dar es Salaam Tanzania and Mogadishu Somalia. The airline expects to add new destinations such as Pretoria and Cape Town in South Africa, Lusaka Zambia, Dubai United Arab Emirates and other Key European capitals sometimes next year.
Last year, Uganda contracted three PR firms from the United Kingdom, USA and Germany at a cost of $ 0.5m each and the efforts of this intensive marketing have definitely begun to bare fruits given the increased number of tourist arrivals from those countries where these firms are operating. Uganda through the Uganda Tourism Board is process of acquiring marketing services of 3 more Public Relations firms in new target market destinations of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, (Qatar and Oman), Japan and China markets that are believed to cost the government $3m on marketing Ugandan tourism in order to tap into these lucrative tourist markets in order to increase tours Uganda visitors.
On a local level, word reaching us is that the government is the process of establishing a portal that will be used by tourists to easily access the various safaris in Uganda sites around the country. This site/portal will be used to promote the numerous local tourism sites around the country. The government is going to partner with the National Information and Technology authority Uganda to develop this portal. This information was revealed by NITA-U executive director James Saaka during a presentation on tourism and digital innovation opportunities and emerging business models. Saaka said the portal will have the details of the various tourist spots around the country accommodation facilities and information regarding various tour agencies. He said this will allow tourists to book online something that has been lacking. “More tourists prefer booking and paying online without talking to anyone.” Saaka added. On top of Saaka’s message the permanent secretary to the ministry of tourism- Doreen Katusiime said that the portal will be pivotal in marketing the sites around the country however she cautioned that there is a need for a holistic approach to the development of the sector and heighten co-operation of between all tourism stakeholders. One of the other prominent of the local tourism entrepreneurship guru Amos Wekesa during a thematic conference on tourism and jobs which was organized in line with the 2019 world tourism day theme tourism and jobs, a bright future for all noted that tourism is a chain of economic benefits which many Ugandan can earn from in various ways. He, however, pointed out the need for numerous serious hospitality schools to train the locals in order to be in a position to take up the jobs that are readily available in the tourism sector. This is so because many of the jobs in the tourism sector are being handled by foreigners since many Ugandans lack the skills to fit the job demands.
Besides all these efforts Uganda majorly relies on its unique and diverse attractions to lure many Africa safari-goers to pay a visit to this pearl of Africa. some of the key attractions that are on high demand include primates especially mountain gorillas. Experience a magical gorilla trekking Uganda tour with a memorable gorilla trekking Uganda safari to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park or Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. A gorilla safari Uganda, rewards you with an hour to gaze at and photograph these magical beings in their natural habitat as they go about their daily rounds. Besides this having an encounter with the gorillas on this gorilla trek safari Uganda you can still engage in a variety of other activities on your gorilla trekking Uganda safari and these include birding since these 2 gorilla destinations have numerous bird species which await your on your birding adventure there, nature hikes and a cultural encoutnter with the batwa. Besides the gorillas, Uganda is also home to a wide variety of mammals which include lions, African leopards, African bush elephants, cape buffaloes and the rhinos and many other wild mammals that can be seen on Uganda wildlife safaris to any of the savanna parks of Uganda such as Queen Elizabeth national park Uganda, Kidepo valley national park Uganda, Lake Mburo national park Uganda and Murchison falls national park Uganda. Uganda’s spectacular and diverse culture which comes with 60 indigenous tribes fascinates many travellers and some of the highly intriguing local tribes in Uganda include the Baganda majorly because of their rich cultural history and food like the “luwombo” which is can chicken/beef/ stew that has been steamed in banana fibers. The Batwa is another tribe of people that intrigues many Uganda safari tours –goers because these people have managed to co-exist with the giant mountain gorillas in the tropical forests of Bwindi long for over a 1000 years and also because of relative body size as they are relatively shorter than the average people in east Africa. Jinja Source of the Nile which is renowned for various attractions which include the source of the Nile, Itanda falls, birds, Lake Victoria. These give you a base to engage in a number of safari activities in Jinja source of the Nile which include bungee jumping, white water rafting, horse riding, quad biking and kayaking. If you decide to have an overnight stay in Jinja, the town has various accommodations in Jinja source of the Nile you can choose from and these include Explorers River Camp, Nile River Camp, Jinja Nile Resort, Samuka Island Retreat, Source of The Smile Hotel and Guesthouse. Prime safaris has distinguished itself as one of the best companies that offer Jinja day trips/ 1 day Jinja source of the Nile tours/ 1 day Jinja tour in Uganda.

Would you like to visit Uganda and see what makes this country a destination that’s on the rise? Prime safaris offers various safari packages to many of these destinations. Contact us today and we will gladly serve you. Here are some of our best-selling safari packages

Here are some of our best-selling safari packages

2 days Queen Elizabeth national park

5 Reasons That Are Surely Unlocking Uganda’s Tourism industry Potential