Uganda's tourism potential better than Spain, Museveni reiterates

President Yoweri Museveni speaking at the Giants Club Conservation and Tourism Investment Forum on Friday at the Lake Victoria Serena Resort, Kigo. Photos by Miriam Namutebi

TOURISM                 

In an opinion piece published in the New Vision in 2014, President Yoweri Museveni said Uganda is better tourism destination than Spain. His comments sparked debates in both local and international media. In fact, one media organisation even commissioned an opinion poll to this effect.

As the country on the Iberian Peninsula is embroiled in a bitter conflict with the region of Catalunya over the latter's controversial independence referendum, Museveni has again repeated that Uganda is a better tourism destination than Spain.

 "If you compare (Uganda) with Spain, I do not know what people go to see in Spain. When I was in Madrid, I was almost evaporating, but you find people are going to Spain, Spain, Spain. 23 million people, while for us we are talking of 1.3 million and aiming for four million by 2020, which is achievable," he said.


 
Speaking at the Giants Club Conservation and Tourism Investment Forum on Friday at the Lake Victoria Serena Resort, the president said the only reason Uganda trails Spain in terms of tourist visits is because inefficiencies in his country.

"In spite of the inefficiency of the sector by the administrators and policy people, the arrivals are now at 1.3 million tourists, and this is from a very low base in 1986 when we had less than 1000 tourists."

Museveni however remained optimistic that tourism is now growing, owing to some reforms among government like fighting of poaching, improvement of infrastructure such as roads.

Some of the guests at the Giants Club Conservation and Tourism Investment Forum
 
The president hosted several investors from overseas and wooed them to come and invest in Uganda's tourism and conservation sector.

"Uganda really is unique. The lowest part of Uganda is 650 meters above sea level, this is in the Rift Valley. I was somewhere, I think in New York, and I was told that I was 18 feet above sea level, so I was very worried. The highest point of Uganda is over 5000 meters above sea level, where there is snow. The terrain between the two is where we have all these wonderful things happening," he said.