Hon. Daudi Migereko’s Speech – POATE 2023 Wednesday, 26th April 2023 – Commonwealth Resort Munyonyo
SALUTATIONS
- Cabinet Ministers present,
- Ministers of State present
- Members of Parliament
- Permanent Secretaries Present
- Members of the Diplomatic Corp
- Heads of Government Departments and Agencies.
- Distinguished Guests,
- Members of the Fourth Estate (Media)
- Ladies and Gentlemen.
Good morning.
I take this opportunity to welcome you all to the 7th Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo 2023 right here at the Commonwealth Resort Munyonyo. Uganda is a beautiful country, as you have all witnessed and I hope you appreciate why we are all gathered here today. To showcase the beauty of this country and why we need to speak loudly about our destination on all platforms available to us.
I want to appreciate our Minister – Hon Tom Butime, our minister of State – Hon Martin Mugarra, the Ministry of Tourism, the Board and Management of UTB and all the partners that have made this expo a great success. We will continue to count on you for much more support for events such as these, in the near future.
ABOUT UGANDA’s TOURISM: For the last few years, tourism was Uganda’s leading foreign exchange earner and a great contributor to Uganda’s socio-economic development. The country is amongst the 10 fastest growing destinations for leisure-travel spending between 2020 and 2026 in the following order: India, Angola, UGANDA, Brunei, Thailand, China, Myanmar, Oman, Mozambique and Vietnam. However, the effects of covid -19 slowed down the expectations and the recovery of the sector on the horizon. Therefore, interventions such as POATE 2023 will shine a light on the tourism opportunities available to the Uganda Tourism Board.
All we need to do now, is to focus on three priority intervention and immediately start working on them in line with the available resources. We should be certain of the impact or multiplier effects they will create, the returns we shall get and the benefits should be well articulated.
- TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE
REFURBISHMENT OF AEROROMES: Following the Presidential Directives last week, the sector received the government assurance on the refurbishment of the regional airports in close proximity to national parks and the coding of these airports recommended to avoid landing at Entebbe International airport. Tourists will now be able to land in these attractions in their private jets. UTB will work with the Ministry of Works and UCAA to ensure that the gateways to the destinations are quickly calibrated and the ease to these areas quickened. It is my hope that travellers will now connect to Uganda from the Wildebeest migration in the Masai Mara to the track gentle giants of Bwindi through a seamless air connection.
DOMESTIC AIR TRANSPORT AND CONNECTIVITY; Our local players including Bar Aviation, Aerolink and others shall complement road transport or provide a faster and more convenient alternative to the various tourism destinations in the country. Very few tourists want to spend 12 hours on the road, to reach one area of tourism attraction.
In partnership with UNRA and the Uganda Road Fund, an emergency road maintenance program for the key tourism areas of: Kisoro/ Bwindi, Kasese/ Kanungu/ Bwindi, Kitgum/ Kidepo, Kampala/ Jinja, Pian Upe will be developed to expedite the implementation of the state of the tourism roads.
ICT/INTERNET CAPACITY: Since the outbreak of Covid-19, internet usage has become a way of life. Therefore, UTB will work with the tourism facilities to install must fast internet connections and the requisite capacity to enable tourists to share experiences, participate in meetings and conferences from wherever they may be. This will also help us to enhance our business and conference (MICE) tourism as we position our country as a preferred tourism destination.
REGIONAL TOURISM MARKETING
As you all know, our country was ranked among the top 52 tourism destinations to visit in 2020 by the New York Times and later confirmed in January 2023 as a must visit destination in 2023 by the CNN. The destination was rebranded to the Explore Uganda – the Pearl of Africa after a number of attempts. The brand has also scooped international awards that include the Cannes TV and Media awards, the International Film Tourism festival in South Africa, Committee for International Film Tourism Circuits in Valencia, Silver Lake Tour film Festival (Silafest) – Veliko Gradiste, Serbia Zagreb, registering remarkable success. The destination has been exposed as a highlights reel of all that is Rare, Precious and beautiful in Africa.
After this remarkable success, now it is time to promote East Africa as a single tourism destination. Not just East Africa but also Africa as a region. from our past experience at leading tourism expos around the world, Africa is looked at one big country. The narrative on the continent is pigeonholed and as such, we could ride on this perception and brand ourselves as one tourism destination. I’m happy to note to there have been conversations going on in regard to the east African destination brand. The East African Community present has been instrumental in this intervention and we pledge our support in that direction.
I also point out the challenge of a monetary system which is a problem to travelers within the region. We have seen this challenge with our exhibitors from Diani who registered challenges exchanging their local Kenya currency into dollars and later Uganda shillings to participate in POATE 2023. I will use his opportunity to share my views with the East African member states present here to look int this payment process and ease the comfort for travel within the region.
I encourage the tourism boards and associations present here to create collaborations with their Uganda counterparts to design regional itineraries, tourism products that cross over the borders and also bespoke tourism products unique to each country and market these products to the world. The 100 hosted buyers that have visited Uganda have heaped praises on the destination. But, I’m a firm believer of the East African community. Let’s move in that direction.
Once again, I take this opportunity to welcome you to Uganda and I hope you have a wonderful stay here.
For God and my Country.