Tourism Needs Aggressive Marketing, Says Kiwanuka

Nicholus Kalungi and Annet Kabakumbya

29 June 2011

Kampala — Finance minister, Maria Kiwanuka has said the tourism sector needs to invest more in aggressive marketing in order to make its products marketable.

Speaking at the launch of 2011 Buganda Tourism Expo in Kampala on Monday, Ms Kiwanuka said tourism returns from the sector can highly aid Uganda’s economic development. “Uganda is a nature and heritage destination with several attractions. We only need to do more marketing for our attractions both locally and internationally,” Ms Kiwanuka said.

However, the finance ministry has continuously allocated meager funds for tourism promotional activities. In the 2011/2012 financial budget, the government allocated Shs8.2 billion ($3.45 million) for tourism, a figure that has been maintained for the past three financial years.

This amount has to be shared between the tourism directorate which takes the lion’s share and the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), a body responsible for marketing the country, which takes only Shs2.1 billion ($900,000).

However, in a move to overcome the insufficient funding challenge, Mr Damian Cook, the executive officer e-Tourism Frontiers urged players to adopt the use of social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Myspace and Youtube, as marketing tools to reach wider markets using fewer resources.

Ms Kiwanuka noted that her ministry would initiate talks between Buganda and Central government so that the Buganda Tourism Expo can be turned into a national and international exhibition. The week long Uganda Tourism Board organised event, which started on Monday will see people exhibit cultural art, wild game, Ugandan designs and such others tourism facets.

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