By Ben Sebuguzi
It is disturbing to learn that Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), a government agency mandated to promote tourism locally and abroad is still silent on the goat races slated for Saturday 21, October 2019 at the Munyonyo Speke Resort.
The animal event which started in 1993 courtesy of the Repaleria Group is another very important activity which needs to be included in the UTB annual calendar because it defines our culture as Ugandans.
It is a sports even that is very unique compared to other traditional sports where by if promoted by all tourism stakeholders can attract the attention of international media house like CNN under their good programs like inside Africa, which in some way or the other we would be popularizing Uganda’s existing tourism opportunities hence increasing our revenue as a country plus also creating jobs for our youths.
Tourists are swayed by a series of advertisements on TV or popular websites to visit the Tower or London or also consider the spirit Scotland for their next vacation of which we might not have enough financial muscle to do so and the only option is to use the non-traditional methods of climbing on the Ascots goats race to sell our country internationally at a cheap cost in line with the National marketing campaign plan of increasing tourists entering Uganda from 1.3m now, to 4m visitors by 2020 as per the directive from the President to UTB.
Government efforts of spending on just visitors-related infrastructure like roads is highly appreciated plus offering security in tourist attraction centres, but this should not give us a sense of satisfaction and pride, we need to appreciate other avenues to market Uganda. According to world statistics, Total government spending on tourism is expected to top and 413 billion this year according to world travel and tourism council.
According to World Bank, tourism contributes 9.9% of our GDP and it makes about 26% of our foreign exchange earnings hence calling for an aggressive and robust marketing strategy to increase the figures in order to increase our foreign resources and also reduce on our trade deficit.
The marketing of tourism pays off; the visit Denmark campaign reported a return of $16 in revenue for each dollar spent.
In a nutshell, UTB should wake up and support all interventions of marketing Uganda tourism in order for us to be able to increase our current earnings of $1.4 billion.
Ben Ssebuguzi is the Secretary General of the Uganda Poor Youth Movement.
