Tourism Ministry Meets 15 out of 17 commitments amidst Covid-19 pandemic

The Ministry of Wildlife and Antiquities stand the most hit sector following the outbreak of Coronavirus last year.

This led to the fall in revenues and jobs loss after the country went into total lockdown.

But amidst these, Tourism Minister, Tom Butiime, says the National Resistance Movement has achieved monumental landmarks on its social contracts with the people as stated in the NRM Manifesto 2016-2021.

Out of 17 commitments, he says, 15 were significantly achieved and two partially achieved.

This, the minister says translates into 92%.

This, he says, could be a result of the growth in funding. For instance, in the 2015/16 financial year, Uganda Tourism Board received Shs10bn. However, this has grown to 26 billion.

To this, between 2016 and 2021, Ten (10) companies licensed to operate wildlife related enterprises providing employment and foreign exchange to the country; resulted into revenue sharing funds into communities amounting to UGX 22.4 billion over the last 5 years; revenue accrued from Sport (trophy) hunting amounting to USD 1,632,861 (about UGX 5.8 billion) Visitors to protected areas rising from 215,558 in 2015 to 323,861 in 2019; Elephant population has increased from only 2,000 in 1983 to 8,342 in 2020; Mountain Gorillas in Bwindi alone have increased from only 298 in 1993 to over 459 by 2018; Buffalos have increased from 25,000 in 1982 to now 38,367 in 2020; Uganda kob increased from 40,000 in 1982 to 146,250 in 2020 surpassing the post-independence numbers of about 70,000; Uganda Airlines has been revived and this has improved accessibility from the tourist source markets; improved convenience and reduced cost of air travel; number of visitors from the neighboring countries increased by 3.2% in 2019; UTB budget increased from Ushs 10bn in 2015/16 to Ushs 26bn in FY 2020/21; Government undertook market activation and deployed 6 Market Destination Representation (MDR) firms in the ore markets UK & Ireland, China, and Japan, North America, UAE, German speaking (Germany, Austria, Switzerland); Numbers of leisure visitors- the American market has increased by 10% annually since 2016 until the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 and Visitation to National parks and other selected tourist sites increased by over 8.4% annually.

Apart from the Covid-19 pandemic, other challenges include; Encroachment on Conservation Areas and cultural heritage sites; Invasive Species infestation of wildlife habitats due to climate change; Human Wildlife Conflicts due to recovery of wildlife populations; Negative travel advisories due to disease outbreaks and isolated cases of lawlessness and limited financing due to competing national needs.