In yet another of those lone ranger battles that businessman and tourism entrepreneur Amos Wekesa seems to always spearhead to ensure increased financing for the tourism sector, he illustrates this week that Uganda could earn a lot more money if the government strategically invested in tourism.
“Uganda’s tourism, with 30 million dollars’ expenditure annually on branding and marketing, has a capacity of earning us a minimum 12 billion dollars a year as a country. That’s almost equivalent to our annual budget in shillings.”
Media guru, Dr. Innocent Nahabwe, is certainly clear that the next Financial Year 2022/2023, the budget for tourism will still be minimal.
“If you compare with what the neighbours are doing, we are clearly not doing enough. Imagine how many people are invited to Rwanda in that “Visit Rwanda” campaign in the premiership or the effort that Kenya and Tanzania put into attracting big names and celebrities to visit their country. No wonder, tourism earns relatively much lower revenues,” Dr. Innocent says, adding, “Much as Uganda is the Pearl of Africa, with more to see and better weather than most of our neighbours, we lag behind in terms of tourism. Whereas Tanzania brings in USD2.3bn (4.5% of their GDP) in tourism revenue, Kenya USD 926m, we get about USD918m (3.5% of GDP) while Rwanda does USD438m (4.8% of their GDP).”
He argues that the already low investment in tourism is exacerbated by the strange strategy government seems to employ.
“During the then Minister of Tourism, Godfrey Kiwanda’s term, we had the tourism docket pushing funny things like Miss Big [Bums] Size, Rolex Festival and some song campaigns. These were supposed to compete with the Masai Mara campaigns and Visit Rwanda… really?”
“So what do Ugandans want?” Dr. Innocent asks.
While he concedes that not everyone will love the same thing, he emphasises that what connects Ugandans beyond the Uganda Cranes national team, is the love for fun.
“Ugandans like to party. Others take loans to just party. We do anything, I mean anything for a party. Some will declare their relatives dead just to party. This is one area that definitely needs to be expounded on by tour providers. The times I have moved with my normal friends around – yes, I also have some urbanized friends who think like bazungu – we often suffer with boredom in very high priced cottages that look like huts we loathed in the villages, stone floors, ugly windows etc. One has never forgiven me for convincing him to join us on our trip to Queen Elizabeth National Park. No wonder we escaped to Kasese to party. So, our tour people need to put us in mind also. What do we really want?” he says.
Dr. Innocent goes on to share a friend’s experience, Isaiah Rwanyekiro, whom he describes as an avid local tourism entrepreneur. This experience, he argues, could be something the Uganda Tourism Board could look further into to attract bigger domestic numbers.
Rwanyekiro, together with Vilakazi Safaris and other colleagues, reportedly organised a fun plane ride around Uganda aboard Bombadier on Labour Day after wondering how it felt to see Uganda’s many natural attractions from an aerial view.
And so, taking off from Entebbe Airport, they flew over Lake Victoria to see various islands, then south to Lake Nabugabo, Masaka, Mbarara, Buhweju Hills, Imaramagambo Forest, Kyambura Gorge, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Kazinga Channel, past Mt. Rwenzori portals, Kasese, Fort Portal, Murchison Falls, then shot to Kayunga, Jinja and back to Kampala.
This flight was done with the aircraft apparently flying low at an altitude of about 8,000ft above the ground.
“Usually international flight planes fly at about 33,000ft so you can see how low we were flying and the aircraft would also fly slowly at about 300-500km per hour instead of the usual 800 or so kilometres per hour. This low and slow flying would then enable us to have breath-taking views of what was happening on the ground,” Rwanyekiro shared his experience with Dr. Innocent.
The whole venture was structured similar to an international flight. Passengers checked into Entebbe Airport two hours before take-off, went through the security checks and received boarding passes. In the aircraft, those in business class were treated to two hot full course meals while the economy travellers enjoyed sandwiches, tea, juice, Waragi and canned beers.
“You actually don’t need a passport; any form of identification be it a valid National ID or driver’s license is enough or even an LC letter fully stamped and bearing your picture can work. It costs Shs550,000 to fly in economy class and Shs750,000 for business class. There will be another scenic flight around Uganda on June 3, 2022.”
Isaiah Jobs Rwanyekiro is the CEO of Breathtaking Uganda and encourages Ugandans to travel in and around Uganda using all means possible – land, air or water.
In yet another of those lone ranger battles that businessman and tourism entrepreneur Amos Wekesa seems to always spearhead to ensure increased financing for the tourism sector, he illustrates this week that Uganda could earn a lot more money if the government strategically invested in tourism.
“Uganda’s tourism, with 30 million dollars’ expenditure annually on branding and marketing, has a capacity of earning us a minimum 12 billion dollars a year as a country. That’s almost equivalent to our annual budget in shillings.”
Media guru, Dr. Innocent Nahabwe, is certainly clear that the next Financial Year 2022/2023, the budget for tourism will still be minimal.
“If you compare with what the neighbours are doing, we are clearly not doing enough. Imagine how many people are invited to Rwanda in that “Visit Rwanda” campaign in the premiership or the effort that Kenya and Tanzania put into attracting big names and celebrities to visit their country. No wonder, tourism earns relatively much lower revenues,” Dr. Innocent says, adding, “Much as Uganda is the Pearl of Africa, with more to see and better weather than most of our neighbours, we lag behind in terms of tourism. Whereas Tanzania brings in USD2.3bn (4.5% of their GDP) in tourism revenue, Kenya USD 926m, we get about USD918m (3.5% of GDP) while Rwanda does USD438m (4.8% of their GDP).”
He argues that the already low investment in tourism is exacerbated by the strange strategy government seems to employ.
“During the then Minister of Tourism, Godfrey Kiwanda’s term, we had the tourism docket pushing funny things like Miss Big [Bums] Size, Rolex Festival and some song campaigns. These were supposed to compete with the Masai Mara campaigns and Visit Rwanda… really?”
“So what do Ugandans want?” Dr. Innocent asks.
While he concedes that not everyone will love the same thing, he emphasises that what connects Ugandans beyond the Uganda Cranes national team, is the love for fun.
“Ugandans like to party. Others take loans to just party. We do anything, I mean anything for a party. Some will declare their relatives dead just to party. This is one area that definitely needs to be expounded on by tour providers. The times I have moved with my normal friends around – yes, I also have some urbanized friends who think like bazungu – we often suffer with boredom in very high priced cottages that look like huts we loathed in the villages, stone floors, ugly windows etc. One has never forgiven me for convincing him to join us on our trip to Queen Elizabeth National Park. No wonder we escaped to Kasese to party. So, our tour people need to put us in mind also. What do we really want?” he says.
Dr. Innocent goes on to share a friend’s experience, Isaiah Rwanyekiro, whom he describes as an avid local tourism entrepreneur. This experience, he argues, could be something the Uganda Tourism Board could look further into to attract bigger domestic numbers.
Rwanyekiro, together with Vilakazi Safaris and other colleagues, reportedly organised a fun plane ride around Uganda aboard Bombadier on Labour Day after wondering how it felt to see Uganda’s many natural attractions from an aerial view.
And so, taking off from Entebbe Airport, they flew over Lake Victoria to see various islands, then south to Lake Nabugabo, Masaka, Mbarara, Buhweju Hills, Imaramagambo Forest, Kyambura Gorge, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Kazinga Channel, past Mt. Rwenzori portals, Kasese, Fort Portal, Murchison Falls, then shot to Kayunga, Jinja and back to Kampala.
This flight was done with the aircraft apparently flying low at an altitude of about 8,000ft above the ground.
“Usually international flight planes fly at about 33,000ft so you can see how low we were flying and the aircraft would also fly slowly at about 300-500km per hour instead of the usual 800 or so kilometres per hour. This low and slow flying would then enable us to have breath-taking views of what was happening on the ground,” Rwanyekiro shared his experience with Dr. Innocent.
The whole venture was structured similar to an international flight. Passengers checked into Entebbe Airport two hours before take-off, went through the security checks and received boarding passes. In the aircraft, those in business class were treated to two hot full course meals while the economy travellers enjoyed sandwiches, tea, juice, Waragi and canned beers.
“You actually don’t need a passport; any form of identification be it a valid National ID or driver’s license is enough or even an LC letter fully stamped and bearing your picture can work. It costs Shs550,000 to fly in economy class and Shs750,000 for business class. There will be another scenic flight around Uganda on June 3, 2022.”
Isaiah Jobs Rwanyekiro is the CEO of Breathtaking Uganda and encourages Ugandans to travel in and around Uganda using all means possible – land, air or water.
