Uganda government plans to invest $2.7m to boost tourism

Uganda is all set to spend a minimum of $1.2 million in order to explore the potential of tourism in country. This whopping amount adds to the $1.5 million spent last year, making the total to $2.7 million.

As per World Bank records, tourism is the principal foreign exchange earner for Uganda earning $1.4 billion annually, amounting 9.9 per cent of its GDP and 26 per cent of the total foreign exchange earnings. The government plans to hire three more public relations from Japan, China and Gulf countries to grow Uganda’s tourism prospective. He expects that each firm will receive $4,00,000. In 2016, Uganda had hired three public relations firms in America, UK and Germany with the aim of increasing number of tourists to Uganda. The PHG Consulting headquartered in USA, Kamageo of UK and KPRN of Germany earned $500,000 each.

“Uganda received 1.37 million tourists last year. The country targets to increase the number of tourists to 5 million by 2022 per year. We will renew the contracts of the three firms and the names of the new firms will be unveiled soon. The task of these firms is to project Uganda as a prime tourism travel destination. The marketing of Uganda tourism potential has for instance resulted into a 17 per cent increase of tourists from Germany where one of the companies publicising the country is based”, said State minister for Tourism Godfrey Kiwanda, while addressing journalists on what the ministry of Tourism has done in implementing the NRM manifesto at Media Centre on Tuesday

The tourism sector in Uganda has about 5,20,000 direct employers and 1 million indirect employments. 70 per cent of this is constituted by youth and women.