By Fidel Boy Leon
The path to a thriving tourism sector is not a solo journey; it requires alignment and harmony to truly resonate.
This week, the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) and the Uganda Tourism Association (UTA) are choosing to play the same tune. By joining forces, they are acting on the wisdom that horn blowers must blow in unison.
Their unified effort is a strategic move to amplify their reach, capture bigger opportunities, and accelerate growth, ensuring that the song of Uganda’s beauty is heard clearly and powerfully across the globe.
In a high-level meeting at UTB headquarters, newly appointed UTB CEO Juliana Kaggwa and her management team sat down with UTA President Yogi Biriggwa and the association’s board. Their mission: to align strategies that will push Uganda towards an ambitious national goal: growing the tourism sector fivefold by 2040.
President Biriggwa stressed that the days of fragmented efforts must end.
“We can only make meaningful progress in tourism through deliberate partnerships and unified action,” she said, underscoring the need for harmony, coordination, and collective responsibility amongst industry players.
The two organisations agreed to work hand in hand on key priority areas.Joint strategic marketing and branding campaigns to position Uganda more competitively in global markets.
- Regulation and service quality improvement, tackling fraud and raising hospitality standards.
- Digitisation of the tourism sector, including AI integration, translation tools, and Google-powered visitor platforms.
- Data sharing & market intelligence to help private sector operators make informed decisions.
- Cross-sector collaboration with banks, insurers, telecoms, and energy providers to boost tourism infrastructure.
- Sustainable infrastructure development, ensuring stopover points along tourism circuits are upgraded and maintained.
Ms. Kaggwa emphasised the government’s renewed commitment to investing in infrastructure to make Uganda a premium, sustainable destination appealing to modern global travellers from Europe, the U.S., and Asia.
“This is about building a tourism brand that is authentic, world-class, and rooted in sustainability,” she said.
The UTB team included Deputy CEO Bradford Ochieng, Manager for Quality Assurance Samora Semakula, Public Relations Officer Dr. Gesa Simplicious, and Marketing Manager Francis Nyende.
The UTA delegation was led by Vice President Isa Kato, Secretary General Peter Mwanja, Board Member Azhar Jaffer, and Technical Advisor Prof. Edwin Sabuhoro of Penn State University.
Both UTB and UTA are committed to holding monthly consultative meetings to ensure strategies remain aligned and progress is steady.
For Uganda’s tourism sector, this partnership signals a new era, one in which public and private players work side-by-side, speaking with one voice, moving in the same direction, and building an industry that doesn’t just attract visitors but transforms communities.