Uganda’s Minister of State for International Affairs, John Mulimba and his tourism counterpart, Martin Mugarra have led a delegation of over 200 individuals for this yr’s Uganda-Kenya Coast Tourism Convention in Mombasa.
The crew consists of each personal and public sector gamers.
The convention that runs from November 13 and 14 is organized by the Consulate Common of Uganda in Mombasa, the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) in addition to tourism stakeholders in Uganda and on the Kenyan Coast on the Diani Reef Seashore Resort and Spa’s Diani Reef Conference Centre.
Thereafter the Ugandan delegation shall immerse themselves in a wide range of coastal excursions and experiences.
Between November, 22 and December, 22, Uganda may even host the Kenyan delegation to a sequence of familiarisation journeys to numerous Ugandan locations and experiences.
There may even be a Enterprise to Enterprise (B2B) convention which runs below the theme; “Consolidating networks, synergies and variety to maximise the tourism potential between Uganda and Kenya coastal area”.
Explaining the significance of the convention to each international locations, John Mulimba mentioned that Uganda and Kenya already take pleasure in mutual brisk enterprise, together with tourism and due to this fact this is a chance to consolidate and speed up the quantity and worth of this enterprise relationship.
“Uganda is Kenya’s second largest supply marketplace for vacationers. In 2022, 150,900 Ugandans visited Kenya. Out of those, 22,200 visited the Kenyan Coast, up from 10,100 in 2021. Likewise, Kenya is Uganda’s main supply marketplace for vacationers. In 2022, 376,294 Kenyans visited Uganda, a rise of over 40,000 vacationers from the 326,387 Kenyans vacationers who visited Uganda in 2021. The rising curiosity for Kenyans to go to Uganda is principally as a consequence of varied occasions that happen in Uganda resembling Golf and Rugby tournaments, festivals, and music concert events amongst others. For Ugandans, the primary causes for visiting Kenya Coast are: to benefit from the seashores and the coastal surroundings and options; attend conferences and in addition for schooling functions. There’s additionally a rising variety of Ugandans who go to Kenya Coast to have their marriage ceremony events or spend their honeymoon at some to of the coastal inns,” Mulimba famous.
“The general goal of the convention is to consolidate networks, synergies and variety to maximise the tourism potential between Uganda and Kenya coastal area,” he added.
Uganda’s Consul Common in Mombasa, Amb. Paul Mukumbya mentioned convention may even assist create extra consciousness concerning the two locations and the tourism merchandise they provide in addition to improve the synergies and complementarity between key tourism gamers from Uganda and the Kenya coastal area.
“Constructing on the achievements of final yr’s convention, the second Uganda- Kenya Coast Tourism Convention shall proceed to additional discover funding alternatives within the tourism sector in Uganda, present a platform for enterprise to enterprise networking, studying and data sharing in addition to equip the important thing tourism gamers from Uganda and the Kenya coastal area with first-hand expertise of the important thing tourism sights in order that they’re in higher place to market these sights in addition to promote. The convention may even discover additional methods through which to popularise the Entebbe – Mombasa route operated by the Uganda Airways,” Mukumbya mentioned.
The State Minister for Tourism, Martin Mugarra emphasised the function of regional journey as a key driver of tourism numbers in East Africa.
“Given the proximity to one another and the more and more higher connectivity between our countries- Uganda Airways- now flies twice every day to Nairobi, and thrice on Fridays, as properly thrice to Mombasa. Extending regional journey to incorporate international guests will definitely add worth to each our international locations, in addition to create higher and unforgettable experiences for our guests, therefore rising their probability of returning in addition to recommending our two locations.”
The president of Uganda Tourism Associations (COUTA), Herbert Byaruhanga mentioned the convention matches properly inside the business’s need to develop each the quantity and worth of tourism to the area.
Join free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the most recent in African information delivered straight to your inbox
“Each our destinations- the Kenyan Coast and Uganda have one thing distinctive to supply to guests. Consolidating this complementarity is not going to solely improve the worth proposition and customer experiences however will in medium to long run improve each the variety of guests, the size of keep and expenditure,” Byaruhanga mentioned.
In keeping with Stephen Asiimwe, the Chief Govt Officer of PSFU the convention has come on the proper time for each international locations as they recuperate from the Covid pandemic that battered them so badly.
“The tourism business is one among Uganda’s most strategic sectors, creating livelihoods for about 998,876 establishments- each formal and casual and previous to Covid-19, created a complete variety of 2,572,416 direct and oblique jobs, of whom 759,841 had been male and 1,815,576 had been feminine. This was nonetheless crushed to near-zero by the pandemic. Such joint collaborations in product improvement and vacation spot advertising and promoting are very important to the accelerated restoration of the sector,” Asiimwe mentioned.