Find out who the Uganda Tourist (Your customer) is.
As a business traveler targeting the Uganda Tourist in your Business concept, you would really be interested in the size of your Market so that your can forecast you market share.
And if you're just on vacation, this analysis will help you guess who your neighbor might be on your flight to Africa, I think you can agree with me that knowing who your neighbor might be on a long haul flight puts off some bits flight stress....
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From 1987 to 1991, the government’s focus was on rehabilitation of the existing tourism facilitiesincluding hotels, lodges and national parks.
The government also set up projects aimed at tourism development for example, by establishing hotels and tourism training institutes.
The number of Uganda tourist arrivals during the period increased from under 25,000 in 1985 to approximately 60,000 tourists in1991.
In 1992, Government launched its Integrated Tourism Development Master Plan, whichhenceforth has been the main policy document driving government’s intervention in the tourismsector.
In this First Table you will find the Uganda Tourist numbers arriving into the country through overland borders.You will see the numbers for travelers arriving via Entebbe Airport in table 2.
Table 1 - Uganda Visitor Arrivals (Numbers) – Non-Ugandan Non Residents by ContinentOver the Period 1998 – 2001 – (Through Busia and Malaba Posts)
| Continent | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 |
| Western Europe | 5,389 | 4,714 | 3,525 | 2,743 |
| Other Europe | 94 | 166 | 67 | 99 |
| North America | 2,033 | 1,653 | 1,394 | 1,164 |
| P.T.A | 74,598 | 72,790 | 67,153 | 70,688 |
| Other Africa | 6,298 | 6,682 | 3,818 | 3,068 |
| Other | 5,047 | 4,018 | 2,874 | 20,403 |
| TOTAL | 93,459 | 90,023 | 78,831 | 98,165 |
Sources: Immigration Department, Civil Aviation Authority, Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Ministry ofFinance, Planning and Economic Development (Statistical Abstract – 2002)
The Uganda Tourist arrivials through Entebbe Airport
Table 2 - Visitor Arrivals (Numbers) – Non-Ugandan Non Residents by ContinentOver the Period 1998 – 2001 – ( Through Entebbe)
| Continent | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 |
| Western Europe | 31,515 | 29,350 | 25,154 | 26,033 |
| Other Europe | 422 | 526 | 387 | 392 |
| North America | 11,857 | 10,660 | 10,374 | 11,383 |
| P.T.A | 27,780 | 27,554 | 22,843 | 22,580 |
| Other Africa | 12,365 | 13,708 | 12,261 | 12,516 |
| Other | 12,996 | 12,535 | 10,399 | 14,056 |
| TOTAL | 96,935 | 94,333 | 81,418 | 86,960 |
Sources: Immigration Department, Civil Aviation Authority, Uganda Bureau of Statistics (StatisticalAbstract – 2002)
Visitors to Uganda are classified under four major categories, namely;
- holidays/tourist,
- visiting friends or relatives,
- business/official,
- transit and
- others.
The purpose of travel is indicative of the average stay in Uganda and the period especially in the case of holiday visitors. Tables 1 and 2 above show the number of arrivals for visitors who are both non-resident and non-Ugandan.
This category comprises mostly tourists (holiday visitors) and business travelers and accounts for the bulk of so-called touristarrivals in the country.
The United Kingdom, Norway, India and the USA account for the bulk of tourists who come to Uganda from outside Africa.
Uganda Tourists by Country of Residence
| Countryof Residence | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 |
| Africa | 100,225 | 116,683 | 116,980 | 132,240 | 144,257 |
| Egyptt | 616 | 836 | 773 | 533 | 546 |
| Ethiopia | 1,544 | 1,879 | 1,704 | 1,300 | 1,348 |
| Kenya | 59,078 | 65,501 | 68,167 | 60,900 | 64,933 |
| Sudan | 631 | 758 | 931 | 760 | 2,994 |
| Tanzania | 13,902 | 22,318 | 20,780 | 14,375 | 16,863 |
| D.R. Congo | 7,668 | 4,006 | 7,552 | 7,957 | 5,974 |
| Other Africa | 8,179 | 10,801 | 9,780 | 10,354 | 12,002 |
| America | 13,857 | 14,550 | 12,898 | 11,947 | 12,919 |
| Canada | 3,333 | 2,831 | 2,539 | 2,053 | 1,863 |
| USA | 10,097 | 11,263 | 9,802 | 9,593 | 10,550 |
| Other America | 427 | 456 | 557 | 301 | 499 |
| Asia | 10,061 | 19,166 | 10,493 | 8,368 | 8,163 |
| China | 880 | 881 | 1,127 | 945 | 1,025 |
| India | 5,597 | 7,107 | 6,206 | 4,810 | 4,588 |
| Japan | 961 | 1,054 | 1,062 | 773 | 539 |
| Pakistan | 959 | 843 | 842 | 728 | 926 |
| Other Asia | 1,294 | 1,293 | 1,256 | 1,112 | 1,085 |
| Europe | 43,656 | 45,720 | 43,133 | 36,050 | 36,592 |
| Austria | 718 | 526 | 442 | 249 | 168 |
| Belgium | 2,062 | 1,798 | 1,649 | 1,446 | 1,407 |
| Czechoslovakia | 42 | 57 | 49 | 28 | 43 |
| Denmark | 2,171 | 2,205 | 2,299 | 1,654 | 1,401 |
| Finland | 304 | 296 | 204 | 178 | 133 |
| France | 1,960 | 1,677 | 1,650 | 1,320 | 1,351 |
| Germany | 3,324 | 2,971 | 3,304 | 2,497 | 2,920 |
| Ireland | 751 | 835 | 765 | 707 | 700 |
| Italy | 2,036 | 2,236 | 2,128 | 1,560 | 2,080 |
| Netherlands | 2,028 | 2,236 | 2,278 | 2,203 | 2,111 |
| Norway | 7,126 | 8,554 | 8,642 | 6,717 | 7,090 |
| Russia | 159 | 165 | 221 | 139 | 235 |
| Sweden | 2,000 | 1,813 | 1,470 | 1,496 | 1,257 |
| Switzerland | 1,217 | 1,288 | 1,001 | 891 | 1,087 |
| United Kingdom (UK) | 16,451 | 17,603 | 15,744 | 13,954 | 13,626 |
| Yogoslavia | 103 | 44 | 64 | 44 | 70 |
| Other Europe | 1,200 | 1,279 | 1,223 | 967 | 915 |
| Middle East | 3,635 | 2,778 | 2,410 | 11,479 | 1,248 |
| Oceania | 2,972 | 3,510 | 2,678 | 2,069 | 1,325 |
| Australia | 2,093 | 2,562 | 1,916 | 1,550 | 1,068 |
| New Zealand | 879 | 948 | 762 | 519 | 257 |
| Others not Stated | 667 | 371 | 755 | 602 | 783 |
| TOTAL | 175,073 | 194,790 | 189,348 | 192,755 | 205,287 |
Source, Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2001 Statistical Abstract , June 2001
How much the Uganda Tourist will contribute to your business
Our country attracted over 200,000 Uganda tourists in 2001 who earned the Uganda economy over US$ 163 million inforeign exchange and it projected that by 2006 the number will have grown to half a million touristsper year.
Correspondingly, tourism has been one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy withan annual growth rate of 21% over the years 1992 – 2000.
Tourism is emerging as Uganda’s mainforeign exchange earners having overtaken Coffee which has traditional been the key foreignexchange earner in Uganda. Although the general trend remains positive, the tourism sector hassuffered major setbacks over the last years resulting from the political instability in the Great LakesRegion.
In spite of this, the Uganda Tourist numbers have remained steady (see tables 1 and 2).
The tourism sector is one of the key sectors being promoted by the Uganda Investment Authority(UIA). From 1991 to 2002 UIA has licensed 156 projects with over US $ 300 million in plannedinvestment.
This translates into about 6% of total planned investment for the years 1991 to 2002. In2002 alone 12 projects worth US $ 38.4 million were licensed.
Investments in tourism have been primarily directed to the expansion of the capacity needed to meetthe growing tourist influx. These include hotels, lodges, tented camps, serviced apartments, touroperators, casinos, cinemas, restaurants, and white water rafting companies.
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