According to the Uganda Tourist Board (UTB), Uganda made over Shs1.5 trillion ($660 million) from the travel and tourism sector in 2010. Despite this the country still ranks among the lowest performing in the sector globally.
In the fourth edition of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness 2011 Report published by the World Economic Forum last week, Uganda was ranked 115th, having been ranked 111th in 2009.
This indicates that the country lost four places in the ranking. The report titled ‘Beyond the Downturn’ measured the factors and policies that make a travel and tourism industry attractive for development.
Rwanda, a new country in this survey was ranked as the most preferred safari destination in Sub-Saharan Africa when it was ranked 7th in the region and 102 worldwide.
Rwanda and Uganda are the only countries in the East African region with mountain gorillas, which attract many tourists to take gorilla safaris.
Kenya, a country long famous for its tourism attributes, is ranked 8th regionally and 103rd overall having slid six places from its 2009 97th ranking.
Tanzania was ranked 11th in Sub-Saharan Africa and 110th overall, up from 98th place in 2009 while Burundi ranked 28th in Sub-Saharan Africa and 137th overall.
Mauritius emerged as the most preferred tourist destination in Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by South Africa, Namibia, Cape Verde, Botswana, Gambia, Rwanda, Kenya and Senegal in the 2nd and 9th places respectively.
UTB has increased its participation in other markets such as UK, Germany, Spain, Japan, China and France so as to improve Uganda’s image and visibility as a tourist destination at the global level.
Besides gorilla tracking, Uganda offers several adventure activities like chimpanzee watching, game drives, bird watching, mountain trekking, cultural tours among many others.
