Why we need to focus on Uganda’s tourism products, infrastructure facilities

Tourism can be considered a major export item for Uganda. Indeed, NDP 111 and Vision 2040 indicate that with optimal investment in our tourism products and sites Uganda can earn approximately $6b per year.

The package of interventions as directed by H.E President Y. K. Museveni on April 20, 2023, aimed at revitalising the tourism sector, which has been highly hailed, if pursued with urgency regarding follow-up and implementation will put the sector on the desired trajectory and enable the sector to realize the earnings envisaged, sooner than later.

For several years, before the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism was Uganda’s leading foreign exchange earner.

Destination Uganda was also predicted to be among the 10 fastest-growing destinations for leisure-travel spending between 2020 and 2026 in the following order: India, Angola, Uganda, Brunei, Thailand, China, Myanmar, Oman, Mozambique, and Vietnam. 

Ever since the launch of the country destination brand by the President in January 2022, the brand has won international awards and the destination has received unprecedented endorsements from leading media houses, globally, including the recent one by CNN. All this should enhance the marketing of Destination Uganda.

The Government, the Ministry of Tourism, UTB, and the private sector players have been having discussions, generating papers pointing to policies and interventions that must be pursued to revitalise our tourism industry and enable the country to benefit from her tourism attractions given the peace and tranquility that the country enjoys.

We commend the President on his Directives of March 28, and April 20, 2023, geared towards fostering improvement in Uganda's tourism infrastructure, specifically the tarmacking of aerodromes in National parks, working on tourism roads, and Wi-Fi Connectivity in the tourism hot-spots.

These Directives are timely and will certainly set the pace and momentum for stronger interventions and investment in improving our flagship tourism attractions and eventually enhancing the country's attractiveness as a preferred tourism destination.

Numerous initiatives are underway to position Uganda, alongside the other East African Community member states in marketing the region as a single tourism destination. Indeed, the just concluded 

Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo (POATE 2023) event held from April 26 – 29, 2023 in Munyonyo, was well attended by all the seven East African Community (EAC) partner tourism boards and private sector from the EAC partner states and calls were made to fast track the implementation of the East Africa Joint Tourism Marketing Strategy, among other initiatives. 

However, for Uganda to maximize returns from this joint initiative and achieve the set tourism targets in NDP III, we must pursue deliberate interventions and strategic investments geared towards improving and enhancing Uganda's tourism products holistically to ensure global competitiveness.

Many countries, including oil-rich countries, are investing heavily in tourism, precisely because they want to be the best, and most competitive and are targeting the high returns associated with tourism investments.

Research shows that successful destinations provide visitor experiences that meet the visitors’ needs, and expectations and are true to the promises of their brand.

They continuously maintain and enhance their existing products and where there are gaps or opportunities, they invest in new products, infrastructure, services, and amenities that strengthen the destination’s appeal and competitiveness.

Following the Presidential Directives, all we need to do now is to focus on the priority areas/ items/things for intervention and immediately start working on them, in line with the resources we have, at a given time.

We should be certain of the impact or multiplier effects they will create, the returns we shall get and the benefits should be well articulated.

Attractiveness and Competitiveness:

The popularity of tourism destinations can be enhanced by a combination of the factors of competitiveness and attractiveness.

The competitiveness elements are derived from the supply side while the attractiveness ones are from the demand side of tourism.

Competitiveness and attractiveness can help us view destination Uganda from two different yet reinforcing perspectives: one from the tourist perspective (attractiveness), and the other from the destination perspective (competitiveness).

The attractiveness of a destination is enhanced by its ability to provide facilities that tourists can use at the destination.

The competitiveness of a destination is achieved when the provision of services and facilities is more competitive compared to alternative destinations.

Combining these perspectives is one sure way to come up with a holistic understanding of the destination's popularity dynamics.

The input of both tourists and tourism facility operators is necessary for any destination to manage and enhance its competitive advantage.

Therefore, the evaluation of Uganda as a tourism destination should be approached by symmetrically assessing destination attractiveness and destination competitiveness as related and complementary dimensions.

This approach allows comparisons to be made about the congruency between what we invest in as a country and what our tourists are looking for in Uganda.

Research has demonstrated that 70% of all tourists visit the 10 major world tourist destinations, leaving the rest of the world to share the remaining 30% of tourists.

This indicates the intensity of competition for the other less-known destinations. With this, the attractiveness factors weigh in.

The more a destination can meet the needs of the tourists, the more it is perceived to be attractive and the greater the chances that the destination is likely to be chosen. The attractiveness of a tourist destination encourages people to visit and spend time at the destination.

Therefore, the major value of destination attractiveness is the pulling effect it has on tourists. Without the attractiveness, tourism does not exist and there could be little or no need for tourism facilities and services.

As a country, we need to be more purposeful and invest in those facilities or infrastructure that attract and help to retain visitors. 

Product Development 

Arguably, Uganda is a very beautiful country that is greatly endowed with natural attractions and human-related offerings; culture, weather, and heritage that make the country unique in its way.

From the snowcapped mountain Rwenzori to the grasslands of Kidepo, we must all agree that Uganda is a beautiful country. 

However, our products need to be developed to the expected standard to promote repeat visits.

A case in point is Uganda is yet to develop cultural villages or tourism parks where a tourist experiences the destination for a whole day and spends as much money as he has on the experience and items on offer.

We are working on enhancing the potential of tourism sites such that they meet internationally acceptable standards.

This will ensure that we are creating competitive local and international demand for our tourism products. This will ultimately enhance our tourism earnings. 

For example, the Source of the Nile, the Equator, the urgent need for a National Convention Centre, the untapped opportunities in marine tourism on Lake Victoria and River Nile, the Rwenzori mountaineering circuit, Namugongo/ Munyonyo and other religious sites, among others, if carefully attended to will greatly enhance our product range and competitiveness of Uganda as a Tourism Destination. 

Equally important, is the cleanliness and beauty of our cities and urban centers. The cleanliness, hygienic standards, and safety of our major tourism and urban centers are going to be critical in attracting more tourists to Destination Uganda.

This is closely tied to the establishment of infrastructure that is accommodative of the massive urbanization across cities in Uganda.

This would reduce inefficiencies associated with the apparent congestion in the consumption of public services in cities. 

A team of government, private sector, and other stakeholders can be constituted at national and regional levels to ensure follow-up and timely implementation of whatever is agreed. A mechanism for rigorous monitoring and supervision will also need to be put in place.  

Infrastructure:

Accessibility to our tourism sites/products is critical. For several years, some tourism roads have been prioritized in the annual budgets and work plans.

However, a good number of these roads are yet to be worked on and are in a sorry state. Many tourism sites could not be accessed, this last peak season, leading to a loss of revenue and related negative effects on our tourism. 

The recent Directive by the President on tourism roads did cover the key tourism areas of Kisoro/Bwindi, Kasese/Kanungu/Bwindi, Kitgum/Kidepo, Kampala/ Jinja/ Itanda, Pian Upe.

The Ministry of Works and UNRA will need to expedite the implementation of their re tarmacking, upgrading their capacities, and tarmacking.

It may also be prudent to maintain an emergency road repair unit to service the tourism areas.

Domestic air transport and connectivity; should readily complement road transport or provide a faster and more convenient alternative to the various tourist destinations in the country. Very few tourists want to spend 12 hours on the road, to reach one area of tourist attraction.

The Directive issued by the President on March 28 and April 20 to revitalize some airstrips/aerodromes, code them and enable them to handle charter, domestic, regional, and international flights will go a long way to ease accessibility and connectivity for tourists who come to Destination Uganda.

If this directive could be handled expeditiously, this would make it easy to optimally plan /arrange for the visitors who will be here to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)Conference, the Pan African Parliament, and the Commonwealth Speakers’ Conference to visit most areas of touristic attraction in the country.

The benefits and earnings for the country will be considerable.

ICT/Internet Capacity: Since the outbreak of Covid-19, internet usage has become a way of life. Therefore, every tourism facility must have a fast internet connection and the requisite capacity to handle multiple users.

This enables tourists to share experiences, and participate in meetings and conferences from wherever they may be. This will also help us to enhance our business and conference (MICE) tourism competitiveness.

Our national broadband needs to take this new reality into account and the program to enhance capacity needs to be immediately embarked on. 

Capacity building:

World over, the tourism and hospitality sector is impacted by the level of services offered by the persons involved in the value chain.

That is the reason why the Government has invested funds to upgrade the Uganda Hotel and Tourism Training Institute (UHTTI) in Jinja and supported other facilities established by the private sector.

Upon completion, UHTTI will provide the necessary skills training to young people across the tourism value chain. That is from the front desk, chef, etc up to the tourism entrepreneur.

The courses will need to be reviewed, aligned to the international standards and other international languages to be taught for the marketability of our human resources.

The skilled staff should be qualified and suitable for employment in any of the five-star hotels around the world and fetch revenue for the country through remittances.

Many countries suffered serious manpower shortages, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and are in dire need of skilled manpower.

Capacity building is also important in the classification of tourist hotels and restaurants. The country needs standards for what should constitute tourism service providers across the accommodation and restaurant value chain.

That when a tourist settles for a given classification of a hotel, the quality of services should be consistent with the tourist’s expectations. 

A five-star experience should be what it is; while a three-star experience should be at that level. However, no accommodation service provider should market themselves as such yet the experience is worth a 2-star facility.

 Credit to the Sector:  The private sector is finding it difficult to access credit on affordable terms. This affects the industry’s ability and capacity to offer the desired range of services, to expand and remain competitive. 

Today, most domestic tourists are insisting on staying in hotels and lodges which have a swimming pool and health club.

Foreign tourists are in addition insisting on a golf course and tennis court in the vicinity of the hotel or lodge before they are to check-in.

These amenities are now becoming a necessity but difficult to finance without long-term affordable credit for the tourism sector.

UDB has taken the lead in financing the sector, however 

the resource available for lending to the sector needs to be enhanced and made more concessionary or affordable. 

The Government should, in the meantime, consider establishing a Tourism Support facility similar to one for the Agricultural sector which is under the supervision of the Bank of Uganda.

This will go a long way in addressing the plight of the private sector, regarding credit, in the tourism industry.

It will also enhance the capacity on the part of industry players to contribute more to the development of the industry. Besides, the sector players have always demonstrated a good capacity of honoring their obligations.