Uganda, has refreshed its tourism destination brand promise, with the unveiling of a new brand identity that promises both domestic, regional and global tourists, an adventure of a lifetime. Explore Uganda, The Pearl of Africa, was unveiled by the country’s president, H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city.
Explaining the new brand promise, the Uganda Tourism Board Chief Executive Officer, Lilly Ajarova said that the new brand promise seeks to reemphasise Uganda’s rare and precious range of tourism attractions to the world, thereby earning destination Uganda competitive market share.
“Uganda is no doubt beautiful. Beautiful beyond measure. Yes, everyone knew that Uganda is and has always been the Pearl of Africa, – but there was a lack of clarity and consistency on, if Uganda is the Pearl of Africa- what pearls does it have to offer for each of the various travel segments and preferences,” said Ajarova.
“To win the marketplace; to achieve our Number One objective of “Sustainably Promoting Uganda as a Competitive Tourism Destination for Inclusive Development”, it was therefore important that all stakeholders are aligned on what makes us the Pearl of Africa and how do we unpack that to the various travel markets/segments around the world” she added.
Before the new brand, there were a number of campaigns by various stakeholders, most of which were built around “Visit Uganda” as a call to action, something that Ajarova says did not appropriately capture the uniqueness of Uganda’s attractions.
“If you think about it, when you invite someone to visit you, you are simply asking them to check on you, maybe for a few days. But an invitation to explore is really about inviting someone to indulge themselves. To spoil themselves; to delve into; to deep-dive; to discover and rediscover- the depth, range and variety of attractions in the pearl,” Ajarova further explained.
Speaking at the launch, President Museveni urged beckoned the world to Explore Uganda, The Pearl of Africa saying that, the uniqueness of her attractions guaranteed a better experience and higher return on investment. He particularly extolled Uganda’s unique terrain, that made the country a “roof of Africa” where Lake Victoria sits, giving birth to the Mighty River Nile that flows through various Ugandan lakes on its way to Alexandria in Egypt.
The rebranding is an essential component of UTB’s Strategic Plan (FY 2020/21 – 2024/25) that seeks to “Sustainably Promote Uganda as a Competitive Tourism Destination for Inclusive Development” with a strategic goal to “sustainably increase the volume and value of tourism in Uganda.”
Under this plan, UTB is pursuing 5 major objectives, namely to increase tourist arrivals; to increase investment and job creation in the tourism sector; increase the competitiveness of the tourism destination; to improve collection and access to tourism Information and to improve internal efficiency and effectiveness.
From the above objectives, UTB, expects, by 2024/25 to work with all stakeholders to restart, rebuild and deliver to market tourism experiences that will help Uganda to: recover from the impact of the pandemic that saw us lose up to $1 billion in revenue in 2020, reach the pre-pandemic levels of $1.45 billion and grow that further to $1.862 billion; recover the contribution of tourism to total employment at 667,600 people (6.3% of total employment); increase inbound tourism revenues per visitor from $1,036 to $1,500; recover the average number of International Tourist arrivals from the U.S, Europe, Middle East, China and Japan at 225,300 tourists; increase the proportion of leisure to total tourists from 20.1 to 30 per cent and increase the number of direct flight routes to Europe and Asia from 6 to 30 flights.
