Tourists cruise on the Nile at the Murchison Falls National Park in northwestern Uganda. FILE PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI
By NJIRAINI MUCHIRA
In Summary
- An analysis of tourist arrivals shows that despite countries on the Northern Transport Corridor isolating Tanzania, their efforts to attract more tourists have not translated into significant success, with preferences still being driven by individual country attractions.
- While East Africa as a whole is struggling to surpass the five million mark in terms of international tourists arrivals, individual countries in Southern and Northern Africa are attracting large numbers.
Tanzania appears to have been isolated further in efforts to
market East Africa a single tourism destination, after Kenya, Uganda
and Rwanda launched a portal to jointly market their tourism products
online.
At the same time, Kenya is looking to Uganda to boost
intra-regional travel for pleasure, building on statistics that an
expanding middle class is becoming more amenable to travel.
“The fact that Tanzania has made it clear that regional tourism
is not a priority for them is affecting efforts to sell East Africa as a
whole. If we are to compete with other regions and destinations, we
need unity of purpose,” said Carmen Nibigira, the co-ordinator of the
East Africa Tourism Platform.
She added that the region must break down the barriers to the
growth of the tourism sector in order to compete in the continental and
global arena.
The portal will be a shared platform for tourist trade operators
to place their multi-country packages targeting regional and
international tourists. It follows the launch of the East African
multi-entry Single Tourists Visa, which has largely failed to take off
as member states have failed to streamline their national visa policies.
Since its launch in February 2014, the visa has attracted only 4,000
tourists.
“With the year 2017 being the year of sustainable tourism, it is
important for East Africa to implement sustainable tourism practices to
ensure that countries remain choice destinations in Africa,” said Kenya
Tourism Board CEO, Betty Radier at the launch of the portal.
No significant success yet
An analysis of tourist arrivals shows that despite countries on
the Northern Transport Corridor isolating Tanzania, their efforts to
attract more tourists have not translated into significant success, with
preferences still being driven by individual country attractions.
The number of visitors to Kenya was 1.8 million in 2011, and
dropped to 1.2 million in 2015, according to the Kenya National Bureau
of statistics. In Tanzania, the Tourism Sector Survey puts the figures
at 1.1 million visitors in 2015, up from 867,994 tourists in 2011.
Total tourist arrivals to Uganda have grown from 1.15 million in 2011 to 1.7 million in 2015 according to Uganda Tourism Board.
In Rwanda tourists numbers rose from 900,000 visitors in 2011
to 1.3 million in 2015, according to the Rwanda Development Board.
Stiff African competition
“As a region we need to understand competition is stiff and that
is why at the policy level we need political goodwill to sell the
destination together,” said Mr Nibigira.
Despite being home to some of the most breathtaking tourist
attractions like the annual wildebeest migration, East Africa is facing
stiff competition not only from other African regions but also from the
Middle East, the Caribbean and South America.
While East Africa as a whole is struggling to surpass the five
million mark in terms of international tourists arrivals, individual
countries in Southern and Northern Africa are attracting large numbers.
Morocco, which is currently the leading destination in Africa,
attracted over 10.2 million international tourists in 2014, followed by
Egypt at 9.6 million and South Africa at 9.5 million.
According to a report by the Africa Development Bank, Africa
welcomed a total of 65.3 million tourist arrivals in 2014, representing
5.8 per cent of the total international arrivals. The continent
attracted $43.6 billion in revenue from the tourism sector, accounting
for only 3.5 per cent of the global market share.
Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo
Meanwhile, figures provided by the Kenya Tourism Board indicate
that formal arrivals from Uganda to Kenya rose from 29,038 in 2015 to
51,023 last year. The figure is exclusive of ground travel and
cross-border movements of local communities.
Dr Radier told the recently concluded Pearl of Africa Tourism
Expo in Kampala that a consumer campaign in Uganda from March to June
last year was a major boost to intra-regional travel generating 15
million.
Assistant regional manager for KTB, Fiona Ngesa said Ugandans
travel to Kenya for holiday followed by business and conferences, mainly
in Nairobi. Ms Ngesa also listed medical tourism as another sector that
is growing, with Uganda making up 28 per cent of total medical tourists
travelling to Kenya.
Trends show that Ugandans visiting Kenya has been gradually
growing in the past decade except for the period between 2013 and 2015
when the sector in Kenya and the region suffered terror attacks.
Additional reporting by Edgar Batte
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