The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
SPECIAL FEATURE | THE INDEPENDENT | Amos Wekesa, who has invested heavily in tourism, took to X yesterday, with a comment on why reports that Uganda Airlines has secured direct flights to the UK, could be a turning point for the sector. In his tweet, he said “we need to reflect on ourselves as a country and my write up should make us understand why!”
Well, X being X, he got some rebuttals, and here below is it all
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WEKESA: For a long time, Uganda didn’t have a single direct flight out of any European city, the few flights out of Europe had to pass elsewhere before landing in Uganda.
That partly explains why Tanzania for example will get 1.8million tourists from Europe in a year and Uganda less than 40,000. That’s less than 2.5% of what Tanzania does.
It is well known that in adventure tourism business or general business travels, travelers will travel more to countries with direct flights plus easy visa access
Of course, the major setback for Uganda is the little interest in Marketing or positioning Uganda itself by those in responsible positions as the figures themselves show!
When marketing or branding happens, airline companies across the globe pick interest in your country. It is because travelers who are also called spenders, will create the demand – they will create what Airlines call ‘bums on seats’.
UK is still our biggest source of tourists annually from Europe but we get less than 12,000. In fact we got just above 11,000.
Germans were our second with only 4,860, French 3rd with 3,002 only. Now, compare that to what Tanzania gets.
Tanzania got 111,000 French tourists, Germans were 93,000, 34,000 Dutch, while on this one, we got 2,700 only.
Imagine each spent a conservative figure of $3,000 – do the math.
Kenya is still the big boy in the region.
These days, we are being discouraged from comparing figures. Some people don’t want us to compare figures with our neighbors in the south.
They forget that the reason we compare figures, is because we aren’t living in isolation. If I am a tourist in Europe, I have over 196 countries to choose from.
Why do we stand out as a country to be chosen?
Direct flights- UK
Why below is good news!
But we need to reflect on ourselves as a country and my write up should us understand why!
Share the write up to reach more people!
Uganda didnt have a single direct flight out of any European city, the few flights out of Europe… https://t.co/aSHoNqEj0T
— Amos Wekesa (@wekesa_amos) October 9, 2024
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