Tourism board to classify 3500 hotels into stars

Apr 28, 2016

Vincent Mugaba, the head of public relations at UTB explained that hotels are being classified to allow tourists coming to Uganda know what to expect in terms of services when booking.

The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) has started classifying the 3475 hotels in the country into stars to match the global standards.

Vincent Mugaba, the head of public relations at UTB explained that hotels are being classified to allow tourists coming to Uganda know what to expect in terms of services when booking.

Currently there are only 29 hotels in Uganda that are classified with only three five star hotels; Sheraton Kampala Hotel, Kampala Serena Hotel, and Munyonyo Common Wealth Resort.

The five star hotels provide a high degree of luxury and ambience that conform to any internationally recognizable standards.

Mugaba said they will also be classifying motels, lodges, cottages, villas and service apartments in the process. He noted that some motels and lodges have been operating as hotels, something the classification will help to address.

World over, hotels are classified into stars beginning from one star at the bottom of the ranking to five star hotels.

New Vision learnt that UTB starts the process of collecting information needed to rank the hotels on May 2 to ensure that by December, all are classified.

The hospitality industry is very important for Uganda tourism sector because the sector is the country's lead export.

Last financial year, Uganda, the pearl of Africa earned sh4.7 trillion from the tourism sector.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});