The parliament of Uganda has called for an increase in the 2024/25 budget allocated to promote the country’s tourism offerings, citing lacklustre arrival figures from international source markets and poor competitiveness compared with neighbouring East African nations.
Meeting to discuss the country’s 2023/24 tourism performance in April, the Sectoral Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry lamented a dearth of arrivals from the US, China and Europe. In the first half of the financial year (July 1 to December 30), 67 252 tourists arrived from these markets: just 24% of the 281 760 arrivals that Uganda hopes to achieve by the end of June 2024.
Uganda’s Tourism Development Programme – which provides funding to the Ministry of Tourism and the UTB – has been allocated a total of UGX 248.7bn (€61.3m) in 2024/25, the same amount as last year.
Martin Bahinduka, Minister of State, Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, said that unless the sector’s marketing budget was…
