Uganda eyes 5.6 mln USD investment to market nation's tourism

KAMPALA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Ugandan Members of Parliament have asked the government to allocate 20 billion Uganda shillings (5.6 million U.S. dollars) towards the marketing of tourism in the next financial year.

According to recommendations drawn by the budget committee of Parliament and forwarded to the Executive, the money will be used to promote the country's tourism potential, especially on the international scene.

In allocating the money, the committee quoted last year's budget statement which noted that "Uganda has a huge tourism potential, but is constrained by poor infrastructure to access tourism sites, inadequate skills in the hospitality industry and low visibility to attract national and international tourists".

In an earlier interview with Xinhua, the chairperson of Uganda Tourism Board, Daudi Migereko, had said the government plans to hire private companies to promote the country's tourist attractions on the international scene.

"Our country has both cultural and religious tourism, where tourists come to the martyrs' shrine in Kampala and also to experience the different cultural practices in the diverse kingdoms in Uganda," Migereko said.

He added that last year alone, three million people from across the world visited the Namugongo Martyrs Shrine.

Uganda is targeting tourist arrivals to increase to 4 million visitors per year, and double tourism earnings from the current 1.5 billion U.S. dollars to 2.7 billion U.S. dollars by 2020.

A team of technocrats and other tourism players will also be heading to China on March 11 to promote tourism. Enditem