Explore west was a long-waited tour after kicking off Explore Elgon towards the end of 2022. Explore west is a breath-taking therapy that welcomes not only Ugandans but also foreigners to be exposed to the hidden treasures of western region. As Ugandans kicked off explore west campaign, they immediately geared up POATE that took place in Munyonyo Speke Resort for about 4 days from 26th to 29th April, 2023.
Due to pandemic covid-19, POATE aims at showcasing Uganda Tourism attractions to the rest of the world. During this expo, the CEO Uganda Tourism Board Lily Ajarova charged charged with the responsibility of marketing Uganda to the world both locally and internationally with explore Uganda.
“The expo will also bring together both public and private sector stakeholders along the tourism value chain, creating business and networking opportunities for the tourism sector to enhance the economic development and social transformation of our country.” She added.
In 2021, Uganda last held the expo and became the first country to hold a virtual tourism expo in the region. Despite after the breakdown of Covid-19, the 2021 expo hosted 113 guest participants, 428 hosted buyers, 30 speakers and above all 422 exhibitors as the online attractions
The value of each business lead at POATE 2021 stood at Shs78.8 million with UTB registering a media advertising equivalency of Shs483 million as a result of all communications incidental to POATE 2021 according to Ajarova.
To bring the big global players to have a taste of what Uganda has to offer to the world has been her ambition target.
During a press engagement with travel journalists at her office in Kampala, she said that at this year’s expo, we envisage to welcome over 300 exhibitors. This includes tourism boards and associations from the region that will interact with our local suppliers for the benefit of tourism.
According to data from the World Tourism & Travel Council (WTTC) shows that the global tourism sector is now recovered at 65 percent since the pandemic outbreak and the full recovery of the sector is expected in 2023 and beyond.
What are highlight of the Expo to the world as you to fully host the tourism community?
At the Expo, they shall host 100 Africa specialist tour operators (hosted buyers) in our core source markets of Africa (South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt), Germany speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), United Kingdom, and Spain to explore Uganda – the Pearl of Africa and include our beautiful destination in their Africa itineraries in the next few months. In doing so, Uganda will not only attract more travelers but also increase in the associated benefits including tourism revenue and employment.
“The Expo will feature the emerging issues of Sustainability and Responsible tourism, headlined by five seminars on tourism investment, sustainability, MICE and innovation. There will also be three days of the expo, dedicated to Business-to-Business meetings with the participants and the last day dedicated to consumers.” She said targeting a Perfect opportunity to introduce the Pearl of Africa brand to all 5,000 participants and millions of Ugandans.
Explore West
Uganda had to refocus its tourism market by targeting the local market since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent easing of the lockdown. In 2022, data from the ministry of Tourism registered 360,000 visitors to the national parks, up from 320,000 in 2019 before Covid-19 hit the world.
During the same period, UWEC registered over 400,000 visitors where the majority were Ugandans in both cases. During the explore west campaign, the state minister Mugara Martin Ugandans have appreciated the country’s tourism potential and are now traveling more than the foreigners.
“We believe if this trend continues defiantly, we will be able to sustain this sector,” he said. He continuously asked Ugandans to turn in large numbers to explore the region just like they did for explore elgon and explore west.
He added saying this time around they are encouraging Ugandans to travel with them to get the experience to share and talk about it. he think Elgon was a very good experience and success and it has inspired them to go on this campaign. The reason why they are concentrating on domestic tourism campaign, is because Covid taught them the only way they can have a resilient tourism sector moving forward, is to focus on the domestic market and they are seeing the achievements and they want to thank the Ugandans.
In determining the future of tourism in the country, Uganda has one of the youngest populations globally, which the minister said will play a big part. He added saying that they see potential and they have a very young population and they want to encourage them to travel because if you don’t travel now then I don’t know when you will travel.
It is in plan that after explore west, the next campaign will be explore north campaign where Murchison falls national park and kidepo valley national park.
He added saying that they are not ending with this Explore West. they shall be doing Explore Northern Uganda before June, and they shall also be doing a mini hike of Mt. Rwenzori just for the domestic tourism component.
