Our reporter

A recently released report by Uganda Tourism Board has revealed that 82.6% of tourists were from main land African countries of Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Burundi, accounting for over 1,136,216 arrivals in the country, well as overseas tourism dropped by 1% from 12% in 2022 to 11% in 2023.

The report points to the fact that the minimal arrivals from the overs seas category consisting of America, Middle East, Europe, Asia and Oceania, could have been due to these continents recovering from the shocks of COVID 19 pandemic.

The report however also highlighted that Uganda is still grappling with the challenge of growing its overseas market.

This category is critical for Uganda since tourists from these destinations generally high spenders and thus contribute significantly to foreign exchange earnings. The report further revealed that the country received more tourists from Asia, Europe and America in the overseas category, with the Indian market remaining Uganda’s major tourism revenue earner in this category.

Bangladesh and Australia are Uganda’s potential tourism revenue earners with over 2327 and 2318 arrivals in 2023, compared to other overseas states that had less. Overall, Uganda’s tourism revenue grew by 48% to reach 3,818.6 billion in 2023. This is in contrast to 2,571.5 billion earned from tourism in 2022.