How to work together to fix Uganda’s tourism numbers – The Kampala Report

In addition to my current roles elsewhere, I have been appointed (and I have accepted) to the position of Chief Executive Officer at the Uganda Tourism Association (UTA).

UTA is the umbrella organisation that brings together tourism trade associations in Uganda. Our purpose is to build a professional, competitive, thriving, and inclusive tourism sector for our member associations, thereby sustainably contributing to Uganda’s national development agenda.

As I step into the role of CEO, I am acutely aware of the critical juncture we find ourselves in. Among the 4 major players in the tourism industry⏤ Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, we are the only country that is yet to recover our precovid-19 visitor numbers fully. While international tourist receipts grew by 48.5% in 2023 from UGX.2,751.5bn in 2022 to reach UGX 3,818.6bn (USD 1.025 bn), this is only 83.4% of UGX 4,580.4 billion recorded in 2019.

While tourism contributed USD 2.8 billion (5.5%) to Uganda’s GDP in 2023, this is USD300 million less than the USD 3.1 billion contribution in 2019.
Urgent action is needed to address this situation.

Many reasons explain this slowed recovery and what many believe to be performance-below-potential, but the major one is the government’s suboptimal investment into a sector that many believe has a more significant potential to accelerate Uganda’s economic growth than many other sectors.

For example, while total NDP III planned funding for the sector for the first financial years (2020/21-2023/24) was supposed to be UGX2.049 trillion, only UGX826.5 billion was released- an equivalent of just 40%. During FY2023/24, UGX 260.599 billion was approved for the above MDAs, but only UGX 258.675 billion was released.

The sector also needs more access to suitable and affordable medium to long-term funding.

With such a funding gap, the sector can only do as much.

With slow post-pandemic recovery, it is no wonder that the sector has the highest Non-Performing Loans to Gross Loans Ratio of 12.1% as of May 2024, according to the Bank of Uganda.

Nonetheless, we remain optimistic.

We thank the government for continued investment in other sectors that support the tourism sector, such as roads and electricity. We also welcome the government’s renewed enthusiasm for the sector. Tourism is one of core sectors being focused on as a key driver of growth in the medium to long term. The government has repeatedly said it targets increasing sector earnings from USD1 billion to USD5 billion by 2028. But we wait to see the radical shift in policy and investment needed to make this possible.

I look forward to infusing my professional experience into my passionate love for Destination Uganda and to being an essential bridge between the private sector, the government, and our development partners as we jointly work to increase the volume and value of tourism to Uganda and ultimately increase tourism enterprise revenues and household incomes.

The writer, Muhereza Kyamutetera is newly appointed Chief Executive Officer, Uganda Tourism Association (UTA).