The Big Story

Cancelled bookings, empty rooms and ballooning overheads: Uganda’s tourism sector counts COVID-19 costs- and it’s just the start This is why it is important to save tourism- at USD1.6 billion, tourism earnings in FY18/19 were bigger than the export earnings of Uganda's leading 17 agriculture exports combined! According to figures from Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) and Bank of Uganda, export earnings from coffee, cotton, tea, tobacco, fish and its products, hides & skins, sim sim, maize, beans, flowers, cocoa beans, fruits and vegetables, rice, pulses, sugar, and vanilla - all put together, fetched Uganda USD1.34 billion, that is some USD260 million less than tourism’s USD1.6 billion.

Although Uganda had as of March 15, 2020, not yet registered a single case of the deadly COVID-19 top five Kampala hotels had registered a loss of an estimated USD 2,089,129 in canceled bookings alone due to global travel restrictions and anxieties! With 9 cases confirmed todate in Uganda, the banning of political, social and religious gatherings as well as a total lockdown of all our borders to all sorts of travel- by land, air and sea and most Ugandans being encouraged to stay home, the damage to the tourism sector that is Uganda’s No.1 foreign exchange earner is unfathomable….

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About the Author

Muhereza Kyamutetera is the Executive Editor of CEO East Africa Magazine. I am a travel enthusiast and the Experiences & Destinations Marketing Manager at EDXTravel. Extremely Ugandaholic. Ask me about #1000Reasons2ExploreUganda and how to Take Your Place In The African Sun.

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