Uganda’s Tourism Board (UTB) has declared 2018 to be the country’s best tourism year ever – with two months of the year still to go.

In the last 10 months, says UTB, Uganda has received more visitors than it has in any year in its history. “As I speak now,” said the Deputy CEO, John Ssempebwa, “we have surpassed last year’s numbers by over 300 000 visitors”.

In 2017, the country registered 1.4m tourists – a growth of 88 000 tourists over the previous year; and to date this year the number has already exceeded 1.7m. “We have new investments in the sector; we have more hotels and more places to party which are open for business.”

State Minister of Tourism, Godfrey Kiwanda Ssuubi, said that various government agencies have been aggressively pursuing President Yoweri Museveni’s directive to reach at least four million tourists to Uganda by the year 2020.

The ministry is currently running four different marketing campaigns: Tulambule Tourism Campaign, which is geared towards encouraging local tourists to explore their own country; Twende Uganda, which targets tourists from across East Africa; Destination Uganda, which reaches out to tourists across the rest of Africa; and the Pearl of Africa Tourism Campaign, which targets the international market.

Cleanliness, heightened security, and medical readiness are being initiated in advance of the festive season, with Tourism Police on standby to secure all tourists at the various destinations. “For us, we are a different kind of police because we take into account the relationship between a tourist and the national economy,” said the Commander of the Tourism Police, Frank Mwesigwa. He further advises tour operators to reach out to his team if they encounter any problems, no matter how small; and has called upon members of the Association of Uganda Tourist Operators (AUTO) to coordinate with him.