According to the recent reports, it’s evident that there is a huge increase in the amount contributed by the Uganda tourism industry towards country's GDP. From 2013 to 2014, there is been a significant increase from 0.8 trillion Uganda Shillings to 6.3 trillion shillings. The increase is as a result of increasing number of tourists arriving in the country up to 1.266 million visitors as they were in 2014 from 1.206 million who were received in 2013.
Tourism contributed 10% in terms of percentages to the GDP despite the fact that it is not well facilitated by the government and yet it is a very important sector in terms of investments and job creation for the citizens.
This year, Ministry of Tourism honored the World Tourism Day from Lira town located in northern Uganda and while there, they created tourism clusters in an effort to improve on the performance of those sub regions and also encourage them to work together. Hon. Dr. Maria Mutagamba who is the Minister for Tourism also asked the local governments to allocate a reasonable amount of funds within their budget which will be used to promote tourism in the areas and also clean up and also maintain the standards of the available attractions so that more tourists can be attracted to the place. The more valuable the attraction seems, the more the visitors are persuaded to visit and of course they will be spending their money while in the country.
Hopefully this year the revenue will significantly increase as well since the Pope is expected to visit Uganda in November. The industry anticipates an increase in the number of domestic tourists as well the foreigners.
While trying to tap into different particular niche markets, pilgrimage and sports tourism have become very valuable. Also the newly opened golf course at the Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort may be one way of attracting more golfers into Uganda. These different tourism activities have widened the range of what is offered therefore ensuring product diversification since its now more than just the mountain gorillas that Uganda has to offer to tourists.