UBOS, UNECA releases a Tourism Satellite Report that Will Put Uganda’s Sector to International Standards

Uganda Bureau of statistics (UBOS) in conjunction with the ministry of tourism wildlife and antiquities together with United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has released a report that will set Uganda’s tourism sector to international standards.

This tourism satellite account report (TSA) is the first of its kind in the history of tourism in Uganda. The purpose of the report is to analyze in detail all aspects of demand for goods and services associated with the activities along with the operational interface supply of goods and services within the economy.

Because tourism industry cuts across many different sectors of a country’s economic sectors, and can not be measured in the same way as other sectors of the economy.

It calls for the use of an internationally accepted methodology developed by the World Tourism Organisation, UNWTO, a national tourism satellite account has been developed for Uganda to estimate the impact of tourism on the Ugandan economy.

According to UBOS statistics of 2019, an average Ugandan took a 3-day trip and spent 5 nights away from home on a domestic trip. But on the other side Uganda welcomed more than 15 million non-Ugandans during the same year.

This means over 297,000 Uganda residents travel out of Uganda for foreign travel and stay for an average of 4.4 nights. Collectively, domestic tourists and international visitors were estimated at Ugx7.9b an equivalent of USD2.2bn.

The tourism satellite account will help the government and the industry to track the growth and support strategies for a stronger and more sustainable tourism industry.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday after the launch at Sheraton Hotel in Kampala, Godfrey Nabongo; the deputy executive director of UBOS said that the maiden tourism satellite account is the second in series after the water satellite account.

Nabongo added that the satellites enables one to see more data on ground, beyond the ordinary and supplement statistics for economic analysis; adding tha as part of key stakeholders in the compiling this TSA report, the bureau is very optimistic that for the first Uganda has produced a report that will check the contribution of tourism industry into the development performance of the country.

Nabongo also noted that the the report will dig deeper into the number of tourists, where they come from and where they will be staying, and this will help the government to extend services to those places

into the number of tourists, where they come from and where they will be staying, and this will help the government to extend services to those places.

This is the first report of it’s kind and will be provided every six months, according to Nabongo, and gave an assurance that the report will give opportunity to Uganda to know how to invest, and where to invest in tourism.

He concluded that the particular report shows that the performance of tourism towards employment attracted more women and youth, adding over 6% towards Uganda’s economic growth. And this means that tourism is one of biggest contributors to the economy.

Tom Butime, the tourism minister informed the country that the report will be taken to cabinet for more discussion, adding that he was able to observe key main issues like; Areas of new focus especially in; new tourism, ethics, culture, community tourism.

He further explained that, Uganda has over 60,000 cultural sites and cities, and emphasized the need to improve sports tourism and more strategy on domestic tourism.

Butime underscored the need to diversify tourism products, increase more products, accessibly to social amenities like transport, accommodation among others.

He added government has already prioritized the rehabilitation of all road infrastructure in tourism areas, so as to attract more visitors, accommodation facilities, night overstay among others.

The launch was also attended by; Dr. Mama Keita, the director of the sub-region office for East Africa of UNECA, Ms. Doreen Katusiime the Permanent secretary for Ministry of Tourism wildlife and Antiquities, Prof. Odongo Pius UNECA consultant, Dr. Godfrey Manyara UNECA’s economic affairs officer, Aliziki Kaudha Lubega; Director microeconomics statistics at UBOS among others.

Meanwhile, all members of Uganda Tourism Satellite account committee members were awarded with certificates for their participation in the project.