UGANDA'S TOURISM SECTOR (CEDP TALKSHOW) 27TH APRIL 2018
Tourism is Uganda’s leading foreign exchange earner with 1.37 billion US dollars having been realised in 2016. It is increasingly becoming an important sector in supporting the economic diversification of the Uganda economy. The sector over the past years has successfully grown in terms of visitor arrivals, conference business, and investment in the hospitality sector. It is also becoming a key source of livelihood in the economy. Uganda’s tourism largely rides on her natural endowments, which gives an edge over many of the popular tourists’ destinations in Africa. Some of the key attractions include wildlife, culture, water bodies, and faith based attractions like Uganda Martyrs. Uganda has more than 50% of the world’s remaining population of mountain gorillas, over 1,060 bits, which is 11% of the global population of the bird species amongst others. The country has 10 national parks, wildlife reserves, 10 wild life sanctuaries, 5 community wildlife management areas amongst others.
The top ten source markets for Uganda contributing close to 85% of total tourist arrivals include Kenya, DRC, Tanzania, USA, Burundi, United Kingdom, South Sudan, India and South Africa. The sector’s direct contribution to GDP was 2.6% amounting to over 2.4 trillion Uganda shillings. Total contribution of the industry to the GDP along the supply chain and induced income impacts was 6.6% of GDP amounting to over 6 billion US dollars in 2016 and generated 1.37 billion USD as forex earnings in the same year. The sector has also created over 191,000 jobs directly and a total of 504,000 jobs along the value chain (5.8 percent of total employment in the economy.
Uganda experienced phenomenal international recognition during the 2017 financial year. US- Based CNN named Uganda among the world’s top tourism destinations for 2017. Kidepo National Park was nominated for World Travel Awards as Africa’s leading National Park. Uganda ranked as 4th best country to visit in Africa by The Rough Guides, a UK leading travel publisher. Kidepo national park was also named best Safari Park to visit in Africa by CNN and Uganda was named the most welcoming country by Inter-Nations.
The state of Uganda’s wildlife is as follows;
• Has Over 11% of the global bird diversity (50% of Africa’s bird species)
• 7% of the global mammal diversity (39% of Africa’s mammal richness
• 19% of Africa’s amphibian species
• 14% of Africa’s Reptile species
• 53.9% of the global population of the remaining Mountain Gorillas.
Uganda’s tourism sector is under the docket of the ministry of Tourism Wildlife and Antiquities mandated to oversee and coordinate the tourism sector. The ministry works with the tourism agencies (Uganda Wildlife Authority, Uganda Tourism Board, Uganda Wildlife Education Center and the Uganda Hotel and Tourism Training Institute. The private sector also plays a major role and the ministry works with a number of the sector association in the planning processes and they include; Uganda Tourism Association (UTA), Uganda Community Tourism Association (UCOTA), Community Based Tourism Association (COBA) and the Uganda Hotels Association (UHOA).
