UGANDA - THE PEARL OF AFRICA

Tourism has for the past couple of years been the number two foreign exchange earner toppling coffee at times. Agriculture has been the predominant foreign exchange earner for the country with coffee and cotton topping the list. Tourism has for now been one of the most promising sectors of the Uganda economy and brings in millions of dollars annually from hundreds of thousands of tourists visiting the country. In the last ten years the number of tourists visiting the country has quadrupled. About 200,000 tourists visited the country in 1998; however, in 2008 Uganda saw a significant leap in the number of tourists to 844,000. These brought in about $540m coming in as the second highest foreign exchange earner for the Country. The largest percentage of this number being tourists from African countries such Rwanda and Kenya. Europeans make up the hugest percentage of people coming into Uganda from outside Africa, followed by Americans whose number shot up to 42,000 in 2007.

However, tourism has been neglected by government during budget allocations for a number of years. During this year’s(2009) budget reading however, the government of Uganda noticed the great impact tourism is playing in the growth of the economy in terms of foreign exchange earnings and creation of the much-needed jobs for its citizens. The Government of Uganda has thus allocated 2 billion shillings (approximately 1 million dollars) to the promotion of tourism and Uganda’s image internationally so as to boost the tourism sector. This has been welcomed by tour operators country-wide who are hailing this as the beginning of a new era in Uganda’s tourism sector as the Government has promised to build on this. This is being looked upon by some as a drop in the ocean as it is less than 0.1% of the gross national budget. They say it is unlikely to create a significant impact on the tourism sector.

However, the Minister of Finance, Syda Bbumba said the Government of Uganda is doing its best to improve tourism in the country. She highlighted the tax waivers on tourism vehicles as well as the work the Energy Ministry has done in extended electricity to all the major tour destinations in the country.

This is due to the persistent pleas by the tour operators and stakeholders in the tourism sector to help build and sell the country to the international community. William Byaruhanga, the Chairman of Uganda Tourist Board (UTB) hailed this as positive step in the right direction.
 

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, Africa attracts the least number of tourists despite its enormous potential as a tourist destination. It accounts for less than 5% of the number of tourists globally and is expected to grow by less than 3% this year. This is especially due to the high costs of airfares, the very poor infrastructure, poor publicity and lack of skilled personnel in the hospitality industry.


African countries intend to take advantage of the upcoming FIFA World Cup in 2010 to promote the image of the continent as well as its vast tourism attractions. Uganda recently hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in which the world was able to get a better image of the country and the economic trend it is taking. Shortly after that it hosted the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) another plus for the country which has tried to shake itself off of the image of Idi Amin and the dictatorship he inflicted upon the country.

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