Tourism board says world athletics event gave Uganda $4 million boost

The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) has said the country earned as much as $4 million by hosting the World Cross Country Athletics Championships at the weekend.

UTB’s Chief Executive Officer Stephen Asiimwe told the press that Uganda hosted over 2,500 people and their expenditure is projected to have reached $4 million (sh14 billion) over the last 5 days.

Uganda’s team emerged third overall behind Kenya and Ethiopia, with Jacob Kiplimo winning one of the 4 individual gold medals available. Uganda’s senior men and junior women won bronze medals in the team events, while the mixed relay team finished 4th.

Asiimwe  noted that many delegations have stayed back to visit national parks and other tourism attraction sites and that this could increase the amount of money collected.

He gave the brief to journalists at the Uganda media centre on Monday  ahead of the 4th African congress of accountants meeting to be held next month at Speke Resort Munyonyo.

The Uganda Tourism Board  is partnering with the Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ICPAU) of Uganda to host the conference.

The president of the ICPAU to host the conference Protozio Begumisa says that the conference is another opportunity to market the Uganda Tourism sector.

****

editor@independent.co.ug