The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) has released a progress report that reportedly puts the registered number of tourists who have visited Uganda in 2018 to close to 1.7 million tourists. This is the highest number of tourists registered so far an increase from 1.4 million tourists received in 2017. According to the Uganda Tourism Board, this has been the best year ever in Uganda’s tourism industry. The 2018 tourist numbers have surpassed 2017 numbers by over 300,000.
UTB’s Deputy Executive Director, John Ssempebwa has established that there has been significant growth in terms of tourist percentages. He noted that in 2017 Uganda’s tourist arrivals increased by only 88,000 more tourists and if compared with this year where the number have increased by 300,000 tourists, a bigger achievement has been attained and 2018 qualifies to be the best tourism year in Uganda’s history.
He added on that by close to December 2018, Uganda is expected to come down to the 6th position off from the 10th position as of 2016 as the most visited African nation.
All this was revealed at the launch of this year’s Tulambule Christmas Tourism Campaign. John Ssempebwa also declared that this year has been Uganda’s best in terms of domestic tourism. For the ‘’Tulambule campaign’’, Mr Ssempebwa urged Ugandans to embrace domestic tourism, which he said is currently undergoing rapid expansion.
“We have new investments in the sector and therefore we have more hotels and more places to party which are open for business,” He said.
The State Minister for Tourism Hon. Godfrey Kiwanda Ssuubi added on that his ministry and the various government agencies are aggressively pursuing President Yoweri Museveni’s directive to have at least 4 million tourists coming into Uganda by the year 2020 and this can only be achieved through such campaigns and through aggressive marketing of the country.
The ministry is currently running four different marketing campaigns which include; the Tulambule Tourism campaign geared towards encouraging local tourists; Twende Uganda, which is targeting tourists from the East African region; Destination Uganda which is targeting tourists from the rest of Africa; as well as the Pearl of Africa Tourism campaign which is meant for tourists beyond the African continent.
