Africa-Press – Kenya. A majority of tourists arriving in Uganda are Kenyans; the country’s official sector data shows.
Statistics from the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) indicate that in 2021 tourism arrivals stood at about half a million, out of which 64 per cent were Kenyans.
According to UTB CEO Lilly Ajarova, tourism numbers between Uganda and Kenya can even go higher if the tourism players in the two countries work together and build networks and synergies.
She said this at the end one-week familiarisation tour of Uganda’s tourist attractions by a group of Kenyan tour operators early this week.
Between January and March 2022, close to 95,000 Kenyans visited Uganda for various reasons.
Some have been attending events that have taken place in Kampala such as Golf and Rugby tournaments, Festivals, and Music concerts among others.
A significant number of tourists from Europe, America and beyond visit Kenya’s coastal region, yet there are many other attractions in Uganda that are not available in the coastal region.
According to Uganda, there is a need to market each other’s unique tourism offerings through collaborative/complimentary arrangements.
“Such bilateral business-to-business engagements and networks will enable travel trade partners to come up with attractive excursion packages which will make tourists visit Kenya Coast and extend their trips to Uganda, in order to enjoy the unique diversity of flora and fauna including sceneries,” Ajarova said.
She said that such efforts would promote tourism not only between Kenya and Uganda but also within the wider East African Community.
“We have diversity from beautiful landscapes to the weather, food, diversity in culture, wildlife, the lakes to the rivers to the forests. Basically, Uganda is the representation of what Africa has.”
The country is the source of the river Nile, has the equator crossing at the highest point at Mt Ruwenzori and 54 per cent of mountain gorillas in the world are in Uganda.
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