Uganda’s tourism potential is being increasingly utilized through diverse strategies aimed at economic growth and job creation. With numerous national parks that contain a variety of wild animals, Uganda is a natural tourist destination showing a lot of potential.
From Independence until the early 1970’s, tourism was ranked third after coffee and cotton in producing foreign exchange. However, from 1971 to 1979, tourism ceased, and the National Parks were neglected due to political instability, as observed in the Uganda tourist arrival trends.
With the first census conducted after independence in 1969, there was no specific focus on tourism, but the census laid the groundwork for understanding population dynamics that would later influence tourism trends.
During the mid-1980s, tourism began to increase, and foreign investment in hotels also expanded.
Subsequent censuses, particularly those in 2002 and 2014, provided more detailed insights into economic activities, including tourism.
In the financial year 2018/2019, tourism earned Uganda’s GDP UGX 5.6 trillion from UGX 1.6 million from 192,755 tourists in 2000. Suddenly in 2020, due to the pandemic, the tourists dropped to 473,085.
Similarly, tourist expenditure in 2020 dropped, with a total of 0.44 billion spent compared to USD 1.6 billion in 2019. Indeed, COVID-19 hit Ugandan tourism hard with a total of 72.7 decline in earnings, as stated in the tourist expenditure and motivation survey 2019.
Despite setbacks from COVID-19, in 2022, tourist arrivals rebounded to 814,508, contributing significantly to GDP. Investment opportunities were seen expanding with projects in luxury accommodations.
Overall, Uganda’s tourism has transformed from a struggling sector to a key driver of the economy with a focus on sustainability and cultural richness.
Tourism, however, is still a developing sector for Uganda compared to neighboring countries, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, where the direct impact of tourism expenditures in Uganda amounted to 3.1% of GDP in 2019 compared to Tanzania’s 4.8%, Kenya’s 5%, and Madagascar’s 5.7%.
Despite that, Uganda is still showing great promise for the future, with an international tourism recovery of 88% of pre-pandemic levels in 2023 with an estimated 1,286 million arrivals, according to the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife, and Antiquities (MTWA) statistical Abstract 2024.
Tourism’s direct Gross Domestic Product (GDP) climbed to USD 3.3 trillion in 2023, about 3% of global GDP, similar to 2019 values, driven by strong domestic and international travel.
In 2022, tourism will directly contribute to 5.7% of total employment. This is a 6.5% increase from 573,508 jobs tourism supported in 2019.
In line with the tenfold growth, the Fourth National Development Plan, and priority areas of this year’s budget, the government has proposed several areas to guide in the boasting of the sector.
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According to the Finance Ministry, unlocking the constraints to tourism development will require the following interventions in order to boast growth and be able to realize growth of USD 50 billion.
These include improving the roads, ICT, and other infrastructure in all tourism sites, ensuring security, and countering all negative publicity.
Others include promotion and marketing by hiring international specialized consultants and bodies, supporting training in hospitality and setting standards, and promotion of the untapped domestic tourism market to help sustain tourist facilities in very low seasons.
During the period of FY 2020/2021 to 2024/2025, public investment of about UGX 2.9 trillion was undertaken in the tourism industry. As a result, tourism recovered by 82.6% of the pre-pandemic international arrivals, reaching 1,274,210 visitors by the end of 2023 compared to 814,508 in 2022.
With the budget strategy for Financial Year 2025/2026 looking at strengthening economic growth, tourism development is seen as one of the major sectors to be boasted in order to achieve accelerated growth.
