Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) is set to hold the first-ever Virtual Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo. The 3-day event is scheduled to take place on 27th – 29th April 2021 under the theme “Restarting Tourism for Regional Economic Development.”
In an interview, Lilly Ajarova, UTB CEO, talks about the event; what it is about and what it is meant to achieve
Tell us about POATE
Lilly: POATE is a tourism exposition organised annually by the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB). It brings together domestic, regional and international tour operators, travel agents, destination agencies and various players in the tourism trade to network and facilitate tourism business. It is a unique opportunity for tourism businesses to meet new clients, network, and market their services and products.
With the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the tourism sector, POATE is an initiative to revive the industry back to its glory days. This will create opportunities for the growth of our country and the economy in general.
Building on the successes of POATE 2020 where we registered a 138% growth in exhibitors, from 63 exhibitors in 2018 to 150 exhibitors in 2020, and leveraging the power of the internet, this time we expect to attract more than 200 exhibitors from both our core markets as well as the emerging tourism markets.
Well aware that different players in the sector were affected variously, the key focus of POATE 2021, will be on 4 major sub-topics i.e. Recovery, Rebuilding; Reconnecting and Rebooting the sector.
When, where and how will POATE2021 be taking place?
Lilly: POATE2021 will take place from 27th to 29th of April 2021 under the theme: “Restarting Tourism for Regional Economic Development.”
In light of the current climate in which multiple travel restrictions especially in some of our key markets, as well as the need to ensure safety for all participants, POATE 2021 will exclusively be virtual.
The decision to go virtual was not only informed and influenced by the unique physical and logistical challenges posed by Covid-19 and the associated limitations, but it was also out of UTB’s desire to leverage the internet to bring on board as many participants as possible.
How exactly will this virtual POATE work?
Lilly: UTB has built a specialized virtual meeting platform, via an App that is downloadable both from the Google Playstore and the Apple Store, that shall facilitate one-on-one meetings, virtual speed networking sessions as well as live conference sessions for domestic, regional and international tourism players.
This virtual platform has unique abilities such as:
- Directory Listings: This is similar to on-stand presentations- where exhibitors will be able to showcase their products and services in a variety of multimedia formats, including video, website links and e-brochures.
- 1-On-1 Meetings: The meetings function within the platform will be exclusive to buyers, media and exhibitors only, and shall allow participants to connect with the highest level of travel trade industry professionals with direct purchasing power.
- Lead Generation: The virtual platform allows participants to remotely schedule individual thirty-minute video meetings and network with industry professionals.
- Choice Content Sessions: Participants will have a variety of live sessions, debates and forums from industry experts to choose from. A variety of topics from experts in key areas such as hotels, aviation, resilience, sustainability, and recovery in a post-COVID-19 world have all been lined up.
What kind of participants is UTB targeting for this event?
Lilly: Participants for POATE 2021 will be vetted through a set of criteria that has been developed by the National Organizing Committee to ensure they are of the right calibre to showcase Destination Uganda’s offering.
Hosted buyers and exhibitors will be sourced from the existing core and emerging source markets within the East African Region (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda), rest of Africa (Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa) and the international markets (North America, UK and Ireland, Germany speaking countries, Japan, Gulf states and China and the new markets of France, Belgium + the Netherlands).
What are some of the benefits or opportunities that these participants and the country will gain from being part of POATE 2021?
Lilly: As we prepare for the gradual recovery of the global regional tourism sector, we believe that POATE 2021 will contribute the following:
Absa, ENS Africa, A&O Shearman and Nomura Advise Asahi Holdings on USD 2.3bn Acquisition of 65% Stake in EABL- Increased Destination Awareness: POATE 2021 will enable trade visitors and exhibitors to showcase and obtain the latest information on available tourism products from Uganda and the rest of the world.
- Increased product knowledge: The expo will enable suppliers of tourism products to test the acceptance of these products in the post-covid-19 Ugandan market.
- Enhanced Tourism Service Distribution: POATE 2021 will enable distributors of tourism products to interact with suppliers and distributors in the value chain to establish relationships necessary for business sustainability.
- New Business Deals and Enhanced Private Sector Development: During POATE 2021, suppliers of tourism-related services and products will close and sign business deals through travel bookings on-spot. An estimated ROI of UGX 12.2 billion is expected in the subsequent financial years.
- Relationship Building; POATE 2021 will present the opportunity for online networking by key stakeholders in the tourism industry; it will also provide a useful platform for stakeholders to explore cooperative exchanges and activities.
What opportunities are there for destination buyers? Tour operators? Guides and the entire industry?
Lilly: As noted earlier, POATE 2021 is a marketplace for key players in the sector, to meet, share profile and opportunities and subsequently, close deals, either there and then or post-POATE. The tourism value chain whose benefits spread across from the international travel agents, to transporters, providers of hospitality services, those who run amenities and domestic travel agents and guides to the individual households.
Tourism in Uganda in 2018/19, created 667,600 jobs, 77% of whom were youth aged18-30 years and accounts for 7.7% of GDP- so a successful POATE will eventually touch all these livelihoods in one way or another. Even those who are not directly involved in the sector, they will benefit from the taxes collected from the sector or the consumables sold to the industry.
What has or is UTB doing to boost destination Uganda awareness among potential travellers?
Lilly: First of all, I must say, UTB has since its inception, 13 years ago, working with stakeholders, grown the number of tourist arrivals by 78% from 844,000 in 2008/09 to 1,500,000 in 2018/19. As a result, sector foreign exchange earnings have nearly tripled, growing by more than 171%, from US$590 million to US$1.6 billion in the same period. Just before Covid-19 the tourism industry, directly and indirectly, created 667,600 jobs, 77% of whom were youth aged18-30 years and accounts for 7.7% of GDP.
By 2024/25 and barring for the effects of Covid-19, UTB plans to grow international tourist arrivals from the key source markets i.e., U.S., Europe and China from 210,000 to 500,000 tourists- a core element in increasing Uganda’s annual tourism revenues from US$1.6 billion to US$3.0 billion! This will increase the contribution of tourism to total employment from 6.3% to 10% which is equivalent to 433,000 new jobs or an increase from the current 667,600 jobs to 1,100,000 jobs. This will increase the total contribution of tourism to GDP from 7.7% to 9%.
This has been achieved by a variety of initiativese.g., the hiring of what we call Market Destination Representatives in key source markets such as theUK and Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, UAE, Japan and China. We have also launched several domestic and international awareness drives, such as participating in international tourism expos, engaging with various celebrities, including our very own, such as Joshua Cheptegei, as well as launching and supporting domestic campaigns and expos by the private sector and organising our POATE.
Are there any new products developed since the last POATE was held in Uganda?
Lilly: I must note that we are working collaboratively with other government agencies because we have understood that this is key in creating the impact of government programs but also in efficiency especially in the face of limited funding across the board. We are working closely with Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and the Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL), to mention but a few.
Infrastructure tourism is one of our new areas in tourism product development. We are working closely with UEGCL to promote our ‘state of the art infrastructure’ dams as tourism products.
What have you got to say about domestic tourism amidst the COVID-9 pandemic?
Lilly: As UTB, we rolled out a domestic campaign called Take on the Pearl aimed at “both create awareness and also educate Ugandans on the various tourist spots around the country; with emphasis on What? When? How? Who? And Where to Travel. The campaign was built on the strength of word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family as a major influencer for domestic travel. It rewarded travellers who shared their travel experiences on social media. It also leveraged the mass following of celebrity influencers online to both motivate travelling but also deflate the stigma and anxiety around travelling during a pandemic. The campaign also sought to create awareness about travel safety, provided one practised the SOPs.
According to the MTWA’s Uganda’s Tourist Expenditure and Motivation Survey (TEMS), 2019 Report 61% of Ugandans relied on friends and relatives for travel information and destinations.
Thanks to these initiatives, statistics showed by November 2020 room occupancy, reached 26.5%, declining slightly to 24.8% in December. However, bed space occupancy remained on an upward trend, reaching 25.7% in November and a 6-month high of 26.7% in December 2020.
What is your last word to tourism enthusiasts out there?
Lilly: First of all, I would like to urge all our tourism sector players to get involved in POATE 2021, as we together seek to: Recover, Rebuild; Reconnect and Reboot our tourism.
Secondly, I would like to reiterate that compared to the region, Ugandaoffers probably the most competitive destination for both investors and travellers, because we offer the best value for money in terms of attractions per square kilometre for especially adventure and nature lovers. Amongst many other unique attractions, we are richly blessed with 39% of Africa’s Mammal Richness; 19 species of primates, including 53.9% of the World’s remaining population of mountain gorillas; 11% of the world’s recorded species of birds or half of Africa’s bird species; 19% of Africa’s amphibian species richness; 14% of Africa’s reptile species richness and 5000 species of plants so far recorded. This is complemented by among others, the River Nile, the longest river in Africa and the second-longest river in the world as well as Lake Victoria the largest freshwater lake in Africa and the second-largest in the world.
