UGANDA’S TOURISM INDUSTRY COULD USE 100+ MORE REBECCA KADAGAS IN HIGHER PLACES!

It is a well-told allegation, that the Basoga people of Uganda are known for their EMPUTU. Loosely translated, emputu is a Luganda word for ⏤defiance, rebelliousness or being headstrong.

As to whether it is factual or not, I don’t know. What I know is that there is one Musoga, whose Emputu, has over the last couple of years been heaven-sent or beneficial for Uganda’s tourism industry.

We all recall the September 2022⏤as Uganda’s tourism sector was recovering from the devastating effects of Covid-19⏤ ill-informed, misguided and quasi-moralist moves by the Parliament of Uganda to ban Nyege-Nyege, one of Uganda’s largest music/entertainment festivals. We also recall how one famous Musoga, Hon. Rebecca Alitalia Kadaga, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community Affairs stood firm and campaigned for Nyege-Nyege. Not only did she campaign strongly for it, she was also on the ground to enjoy with thousands of other revellers.

Yet again this year, she has remained a vocal campaigner and reveller of the Nyege Nyege, which is fast becoming one of Uganda’s greatest exports! Yes, exports! You see, tourism exports, unlike many other exports, are enjoyed at source, which maximises impact. But we will talk about tourism exports and the economics of festivals/events on another day. But for today, let's talk about why Uganda’s tourism sector, needs every ounce of support from all corners and perhaps 100s of Kadagas in all places where decisions are made⏤ parliament, statehouse, cabinet, civil society and media boardrooms.

See, according to the Uganda Tourism Satellite Account⏤ Measuring The Contribution Of Tourism To The Economy Of Uganda (2023) report, in 2019 (before Covid-19), the total number of businesses in the tourism-related industries was reported to be 998,876 establishments- both formal and informal. This created a total number of 2,572,416 direct and indirect jobs, of whom 759,841 (29.5 per cent) were male and 1,815,576 (70.5 per cent) were female. About 70% of the jobs are held by the youths.

Tourism earnings reached USD 1.24 billion in 2019.

However, post-Covid-19 Uganda is yet to regain most of this. According to the 2022 Tourism Sector Performance Report by the Ministry of Tourism, Uganda in 2022, only attained 52.8% of 2019 tourist arrivals. Earnings in 2022 were 58.8% of what we had in 2019⏤ USD729 million in 2022 vs. USD1.24 billion in 2019. This is a far cry from the USD1.862 billion that we need to achieve by 2024/25.

In trying to rebuild, Uganda’s private-sector-led tourism industry is already working against several challenges, including government under-spending especially on marketing; poor infrastructure, several taxes, back-to-back negative travel advisories etc. It is unthinkable that any right-thinking member of society is thinking of killing one of the most successful tourism assets such as Nyege-Nyege!

For standing by Nyege Nyege, Hon Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga is my person of the week!

Now imagine if there were 100 other Kadagas in the Ministry of Finance, Statehouse, Parliament, newsrooms, places of worship, political parties and on social media etc, all fighting for different facets of tourism!

Imagine!

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