During Pre covid-19, Ugandans have been the main drivers of recovery of visitation to national parks with an estimated 84,260 local visitors visiting national parks thus promoting domestic tourism.
By encouraging Ugandans to do domestic tourism, the numbers of international tourists arriving are bound to increase even further and thus leading to economic development.
Ministry of Tourism has reportedly said that tourism sector is recovering despite the out break of Covid -19 which had affected the sector.
During 2022, it was reported that there were about 814,508 international visitor arrivals recorded thus 59% increase compared to that in 2021 where the 47.8% was registered about 473,085. However, before the outbreak of covid -19, Uganda received 1.5 million tourists.
In 2019, International tourists stayed for at least seven nights which helped generate about Shs2.7 trillion.
Majorly, Uganda arrivals are from Africa like Africa at 67 percent, with Europe at 16 percent, North America at 9 percent, Middle East and Asia both at 2 percent in that order.
The rapid tourism arrivals in Uganda are because of the brand Uganda which is explore Uganda in various countries like Kenya, US, UK, Spain, Morocco, Tanzania and more importantly exposing local and international markets.
The seventh edition launch of the Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo (Poate) by the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), a presentation that brings together tourism stakeholders and other service providers along the tourism value chain.
After having explore Elgon, the next on bucket list of UTB was explore west which was also success and next on list is explore North where Ugandans are visiting kidepo valley national park and Murchison falls national park thus promoting domestic tourism.
It is an ‘invitation to tourists- both domestic, regional and international to rediscover the magnificence of the Pearl.’
“Covid has taught us that in order to have a resilient tourism sector, domestic tourism is the way to go. We believe if this trend continues, we will be able to sustain the sector.” the state minister for Tourism Martin Mugarra said.
During Uganda safaris, visitors are advised to visit Uganda national parks which have unique creatures and these include Queen Elizabeth national park, Kibale national park, Mountains of the Moon national park, semuliki national park, Lake Mburo national park, Bwindi Impenetrable national park , mgahinga national park national park, Kidepo valley national park, Murchison falls national park and mt Elgon national park.
