Uganda is a naturally and richly endowed tourist destination that is home to more than half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas found in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park.
The gorillas are tourism’s cash cow. In 2019, the Pearl of Africa earned US$2.1m from permits and park entry fees to parks. Overall, the tourism sector, according to the World Bank, contributed 5.6 trillion Ugandan shillings, US$1.60 billion or 1.3 billion pounds as of December 2019.
Newton Akiza, an economist at the Ministry of Tourism, if properly harnessed and promoted, the travel and tourism sector has the potential to drive Uganda to middle income status given the several opportunities and its open-ended nature.
“Our focus on the sun sectors in the tourism industry, namely museums & heritage, cultural and wildlife resources that present several investment opportunities along the value chain,” Akiza observes.
Dr. James Musinguzi notes that the government is supportive of tourism. “Government is supporting the Tourism sector to thrive through putting in place the relevant policy and legal frameworks for Institutions to perform and achieve their mandates. The private sector is recognised through their different Associations and their voice is heard and considered in the promotion of Uganda’s tourism sector,” Musinguzi, Executive Director of Uganda Wildlife Education & Conservation Centre (Uwec) explains.
Tourism enthusiast, Aisha Nabwanika also observes that the government’s support of the tourism sector is visible through its improvement of the state of Uganda Hotel &Tourism Training Institute (UHTTI) in Jinja, to improve the quality and quantity of tourism students.
“Through Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), there has been acquisition of MDRs in key source markets to ensure visibility of our destination Uganda. Uganda Airlines is a key resource to tourism development.”
She adds, “World Bank together with the government of Uganda, are funding the CEDP Project which has quite a number of components towards tourism development as well as improvement of the road networks.”
Dr. Musinguzi adds, “Specifically, the government has supported the promotion of domestic tourism through new tourism products and services for example tigers at Uwec, accommodation facilities at UWEC and in the parks, establishment of regional satellite wildlife centres (zoos), starting with Mbale in Eastern Uganda.”
Wildlife remains the country’s leading tourism resources with 10 national parks managed by Uganda Wildlife Authority. The parks are Queen Elizabeth, Lake Mburo, Murchison Falls, Kidepo Valley, Kibale, Mount Elgon, Rwenzori Mountains, Semuliki, Mgahinga Gorilla, and Bwindi Impenetrable.
In the parks, tourists can find gems like the big five, namely the lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and African buffalo as well as 1,083 birds, some of them endemic to Uganda.
The number accounts for 73 percent of East Africa’s bird population, 52 percent of Africa’s bird species, and 11 percent of world’s bird species. Some of Uganda’s popular and beautiful birds include the grey crowned crane, shoebill stork, Shelley’s crimson wing, great blue turaco, bar-tailed Trogon, Green-breasted Pitta, African Green Broadbill, African Green Broadbill, and the Standard-winged Nightjar.
According to UWA’s business development manager, Stephen Masaba, tourism is a low hanging fruit that can drive development because of its trickle-down economic effect right from the top to middle and community level.
“Government earns from tourism through direct taxes paid whereas hotels earn from direct spending from tourists who pay for accommodation and services provided to them. The farmer in the communities near the lodge will supply food items to the facility and earn a source of livelihood,” Masaba explains, adding that destination Uganda is still a pristine ecotourist destination with the advantage that it attracts, or has the potential to draw in travellers from Nordic countries which are cold and then Arab tourists from dry lands.
He adds that the game changer should be studying ways on how Uganda can develop and spin its tourism product to appeal to tourists in the respective countries.
Amos Wekesa, director at Great Lakes Safaris says that promoters of destination Uganda ought to smell the coffee and exploit attractions like River Nile for the great potential they present.
The Source of the Nile is situated in Uganda or believed to be. Egypt shares part of the mighty River and has developed leisure activities that contribute to the tourism coffers.
In 2018, tourism contributed to 174.1 billion pounds which accounts for 15 percent of the cumulative Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to Wekesa, Egypt earns as much as US$3.6b from Nile yet Uganda has not yet harnessed the low hanging fruit to its economic advantage.
“If exploited, the World Bank estimates that Uganda could averagely earn Shs5b from the River in five years’ time,” he adds. That’s in addition to pristine destinations like Koome, Buvuma and Ssese islands.
For what it’s worth, the minister of works, General Edward Katumba Wamala observes that the interest to develop marine tourism has attracted attention of foreign investors.
In a 2020 interview, he told this reporter that he had interacted with foreign tourists who had asked him about the government’s plan for Lake Victoria given its potential for tourism.
He added, “I have recently sent my team to do some research on what can be done to improve navigation so that we grow the potential of the lake.” Uwec’s Dr. Musinguzi says that part of what needs to be done is making financing available and affordable by giving special considerations to the tourism sector.
“Give some temporary relief from taxes like VAT for the tourism sector to recover from the effects of COVID-19 and reinstate it after two years for example,” he advises, adding that government also needs to increase funding to the tourism sector to enable conservation of wildlife resources through recruitment of enough rangers, introduction of technology like drones for surveillance, promote wildlife research among others.
Among things the government needs to do, Uganda Tourism Association’s Nabwanika points out the need to ensure quality and timely tourism statistics to enable decision making.
“More efforts in marketing to increase the visibility of Uganda’s new brand world-wide are needed. We also need to enhance skills across the value chain, improve infrastructure for example road to Bwindi and internet in some parks. The tourism budget also needs to be studied,” she adds. According to the ministry of tourism, the sector has been identified for its vast strategic opportunities that should be harnessed to provide maximum socioeconomic returns to the Ugandan economy and make a significant contribution to Uganda’s Vision 2040 of transforming Uganda into a middle-income country.
The vast and unique natural and cultural heritage resources present the country with numerous opportunities to stimulate economic growth and earn significant revenue to fund government programmes.
Uganda registered 473, 085 International tourist arrivals in 2020, and an increase by eight percent in 2021 with an inflow of 512, 945 tourists. Although there is recovery, the performance is much lower than the 1.5 million tourists recorded in 2019.
Tourist receipts for 2021 were $US0.53 billion up from $US0.44 billion earned in 2020. This is a positive trend but is only 33 percent of the $US1.6 billion in 2019.
