Arrival figures for 2005 show robust returns on Tourism Uganda’s marketing campaign in key source markets over the past 18 months. The figures released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics last month, show the US, European markets continuing their upward trend in what was a challenging year in many respects.
Although overall arrivals fell 8.7 percent over 2004, mainly as a result of a sharp reduction in visitors from neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania, key source markets remained unaffected, posting their best performance ever. Just over 467,700 visitors arrived during 2005 compared to the 512,378 recorded during 2004.
The UK maintained its position as the leading source market, posting a 26 percent growth over 2004 with the US followed closely at 16 percent. Germany bucked a similar trend with 4,972 visitors during the year while with 10,423 arrivals; South Africa which grew 9.6 percent over the previous year is fast becoming a significant source market from Africa.
“Despite the drop in overall arrivals, the industry is reporting a great year meaning that the mix of visitors is progressively tending towards leisure. We owe this to good marketing and the travel trade which has improved the quantity and quality of services in the different segments,†Tourism Uganda’s James Bahinguza said while commenting on the statistics.
Expressing a similar opinion was Great Lakes Safaris Amos Wekesa who booked unprecedented numbers last year.
“We had a fantastic year and we have not seen anything like this before. We handled 275 percent more business than we had in 2004,†Amos told TU News Update.
The travels trade is partly crediting the stellar performance to the resumption of direct services between Entebbe and Amsterdam, by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines during the last quarter of 2005. Other carriers such as Emirates and Kenya Airways which fly daily into the country, also contributed through expansions in their global route networks..
In order of precedence, the UK, US, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Denmark France, Sweden and Norway were the biggest sources of origin for western visitors to Uganda during 2005. Ireland, Switzerland, Japan and China are also emerging as markets.
Since 2004, Tourism Uganda has under the EU supported Uganda Sustainable Tourism Development Programme launched a number of well-researched marketing initiatives in these markets.
Besides consumer research carried out by Ireland based Tourism and Transport Consult International in the US and Europe, PR agencies handling these markets were recruited at the beginning of last year.
The agencies have organized carefully targeted familiarization trips for journalists from the UK and US that have resulted in Uganda featuring positively in key travel trade publications and travel sections of the mainstream press in these markets.
Kenya, which contributed 220,000 visitors to inbound traffic during 2004, brought in only 138,346 visitors last year while arrivals from Tanzania fell 22percent to 50,723. However, more Rwandans visited, rising from 66,298 in 2004 to 80,522 last year.
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