The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) is seeking Shs77.4bn for adverts to promote Uganda’s tourism industry.
Out of the Shs77.4bn, Shs2Bn will be spent on shooting a documentary that will be showcased on local and international media.
The revelation was made by Lilly Ajarova, the Executive Director at UTB while appearing before Parliament’s Tourism Committee to present the Board’s 2023/2024 ministerial policy statement where she decried the negative image depicting Uganda as an unsafe destination, saying such news affects destination marketing and revenue generation efforts.
She said added that “incidences of election violence, disease outbreaks such as ebola and the negative media coverage of public probes, damages our image.”
To counter the negative image, Ajarova said that Uganda urgently needed a brand to position the destination favourably in the minds of potential tourists because Uganda is the only country in East Africa without a recognized brand and the recently launched Pearl of Africa brand is intended to awaken the feeling of patriotism but also to instill the urgency to promote the Uganda destination positively.
“So for this budget, we need the production of a high resolution commercials and these will have to be aired out both domestically, regionally and internationally. Just to give an impression of what the quality of the production cost, the two minute video that has won us six awards cost us nearly Shs400M to produce. So if we want something of international quality, that will be able to draw attention to the world, we would need Shs2.2Bn for that,” she said.
According to UTB, the Pearl of Africa brand will have to be amplified for three years and in 2023/2024 alone, Shs77.4bn is required, but the Ministry of Finance agreed to a funding of Shs32Bn, although no single penny of this item has been allocated in the budget.
The Board is targeting to place adverts on both local and international media platforms like; CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, China Daily, National Geography, New York Times, DW TV, NKT Japan, Lonely Planet, as well as regional and local TVs.
However, Elijah Mushemeza (Sheema South) wondered why UTB isn’t looking at placing such adverts on Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) first before targeting the international market.
“Even when we don’t have this money, can’t you use UBC? Work out a documentary of 30 minutes. I have seen several times on Bukedde they have some kind of advert which they show rivers flowing but it is lacking. So using our own resources like Shs50M or even Shs100M, can’t we make a documentary with UBC instead of thinking about these billions which we don’t even have,” said Mushemeza.
In the 2023/2024 national budget, UTB has been allocated Shs33.788bn up from Shs27.832bn the Board was allocated in 2022/2023 budget, and of this, Shs4.465Bn will go towards payment of staff wages, while Shs22.764Bn will go towards non wage items.
