Uganda the Pearl Of Africa has today 27th/09/2022 joined the rest of the world to celebrate the World Tourism Day.
“Rethinking Tourism,” was the theme for the glamorous event that went down at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala, the Capital City of Uganda.
According to Tourism Minister Hon. Tom Butime, The theme places emphasis on how sector players can rethink the tactics of endearing the masses to enjoy nature in a sustainable and eco-tourist way.
“Rethinking as the phrase goes, simply implies doing things differently, moving away from the ordinary and rather capitalizing on new and improved ways of developing, managing and promoting tourism for sustainable development,” he said.
He explained that Uganda had intensified the domestic tourism drive with the aim of creating awareness about the beauty of this country to the domestic market.
“Therefore, the initiatives like World Tourism Day celebration are a great platform for us as a sector to share and showcase not only the opportunities and benefits from the tourism sector but also the need to preserve and conserve our natural, cultural and historical beauty on which tourism largely depends,” he noted.
It should be noted that One of Uganda’s key sources of foreign exchange earnings and the largest job creator to many young people is tourism. In 2018, the tourism sector contributed 7.7% of the country’s GDP and generated 667,600 jobs while 2019 had 5.9% of GDP with 671,000 jobs. As a result of the COVID 19 pandemic that ravaged the globe, the sector could only marshal 2.7% of GDP in 2020 which translated into 489,000 jobs.
