International tourist arrivals in Uganda jumped 8% to 1.3 million in 2015 compared to 1.2 million arrivals in the previous year, while the country expects to attract 1.4 million international arrivals in 2016 as well as more revenue from the industry.

Of the 1.3 million arrivals, 70% were holidaymakers from overseas markets, according to Uganda Tourism Board, Head of Public Relations, Vincent Mugaba. Most of the visitors to Uganda came from the UK, US and Germany.

As a result, the Uganda earned revenue amounting to $1.4 billion in tourist expenditure last year, up from $1.2 billion in 2014.

Mugaba attributed the rise in international tourist arrivals to Uganda to being a safe destination as well as an increase in faith-based visits and conferences hosted in the country. “Uganda as a safe destination was the major selling point in our traditional source markets of Europe and the US,” he said.

Mugaba says in recent years, the destination has been doing well in the meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions (MICE), adding that it was among the factors which contributed to the surge in arrivals in 2015.

 “It should be noted that since last year, Uganda has been attracting both overseas and regional MICE events, thereby boosting the travel and tourism sector.”

Apart from MICE, attractions such as gorilla trails, adventure, birding, mountain climbing and water sports in the lakes have also drawn many tourists to the East African country.

Mugaba says this financial year, the Ugandan government set aside $4 million for marketing campaigns in both overseas markets and Africa.

New initiatives by the Uganda Tourism Board, he says, was the recent contracting of three Public Relations and Marketing firms to help market the destination in key European markets. He explains that the PR and Marketing companies would market Uganda in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ireland.