The Ugandan Tourist Board are working to boost tourist numbers to the country and enhance the visitor experience using a growing interest in the East African country as a platform for development. Tourism figures are on a steady upward track and in 2011, the last year for which statistics are available, the country attracted 1,150,000 tourists, up from 946,000 the previous year, according to figures from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
Tourism receipts follow the same trend, rising by 21.2 per cent in local currency terms from 2010 to 2011 and then by 18.8 per cent the following year. In dollar terms, receipts hit $1.1 billion in 2012, up from $950 million in 2011 and $784 million in 2010, according to UNWTO.
In 1908, Britain’s future prime minister, Winston Churchill, rounded off his account of a tour of Africa with the advice: “Concentrate on Uganda. For magnificence, for variety of form and colour, for profusion of brilliant life – bird, insect, reptile, beast – for vast scale – Uganda is truly the pearl of Africa.” The Ugandan Tourist Board is now increasingly eager to realise its vast untapped tourism potential.
In our exclusive video interview from Routes Africa, Cuthbert Baguma, Executive Director, Ugandan Tourist Board, explains why the tourism sector is so important to the African country.
https://www.facebook.com/RoutesonlineUBM/videos/10201422842155068/
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