Why Uganda tourism is upbeat regardless of poor efficiency report
The Ugandan Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiques has reported a loss of sales in the tourism sector in the first COVID-19 phase of 2020.
- The Permanent Secretary of the Ugandan Ministry of Tourism yesterday presented a report on the first 3 months of 2021.
- Basically, losses were reported in almost all categories such as hotel occupancy, number of foreign visitors and employment.
- It is the response to this report that gives Uganda an optimistic outlook for the future.
This was stated in a report by Doreen Katusiime, Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ugandan Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiques on May 27, 2021 at the Uganda Media Center in Kampala entitled “Performance of the Tourism Sector in 2020 and the first 3 Months of the year 2021. “
In summary:
- Annual foreign exchange revenues fell 73 percent to $ 0.5 billion.
- Foreign visitors fell by 69.3 percent to 473,085.
- Employment opportunities fell 70 percent to 160,980.
- In June 2020, hotel occupancy dropped from an average of 58 percent to just 5 percent, with over 75 percent of hotel bookings (448,996) canceled, causing a direct loss of $ 320.8 million, equivalent to 1.19 trillion UGX.
In response to the loss, the PS said the Ugandan government is working with the private sector and development partners have undertaken several interventions to revitalize the sector, as follows:
