Tourism, together with agriculture, manufacturing, mining, oil & gas, forestry and housing, have been identified by the government of Uganda as key sectors that will drive the country Vision 2040, which aims to transform the country into a middle class economy with income per capita in the region of US$9500.
But after analyzing the Hon Maria Kiwanuka’s June FY2013/14
budget speech and the many other budget speeches by her predecessors, you can’t help wonder if she and the architects of Vision 2040 are reading from the same book.
Even though she rightly noted that part of the reason while growth slowed down in 2012/13 was because of the decline it tourism, itself, caused by a poor road infrastructure to wildlife parks, inadequate tourism information, inadequate international accreditation for the hospitality industry and lack of a least cost comprehensive tourism promotion strategy for the country, she stopped short of prescribing a remedy.
This, defies common sense, given that the tourism sector is Uganda’s second biggest foreign exchange earner after agriculture, recording US$800 million in direct revenues.
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Edwin Muzahura, the Public Relations and Marketing Manager, for Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), the agency charged with promoting Uganda’s tourism potential both domestically and internationally is frustrated.
He says the Ushs4 billion, out of a FY2013/2014 Ushs12 trillion budget allocation to Uganda Tourism Board, in 2013/2014 budget is too small to achieve the needed strategies, to maximize out tourism potential.
“UTB suffered more cuts which happened at a time when we are trying to host a marketing initiative in terms of the EAC joint marketing. Tourism is the fastest growing sector in the region and the biggest contributor of foreign exchange for Uganda and to see it neglected financially is just wrong,
