Kenya and Uganda are exploring ways the two can collaborate to promote and market tourism products in order to increase the number of visitors.
Increased promotion of key tourism sites available in the two countries tipped to help increase the number of tourists between the two East African Community member states.
“A big section of the population, including tourism stakeholders, is not aware of the rich and diverse products in each other’s countries, even when the two countries remain each other’s top tourist source markets,” said John Mulimba , Uganda Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation.
Speaking at the 2nd Uganda-Kenya Coast Tourism Conference in Kwale County, which targets to consolidate networks, synergies, and diversity to maximize the tourism potential between the two countries, Mulimba said the two countries still have untapped tourism potential which if well highlighted could boost the numbers.
“We can move beyond the 370,000 Kenyans who visited Uganda last year, and the 150,000 Ugandans who visited Kenya last year. All we need is to work together, to ensure that we make this partnership work,” he added.
Majority of Kenyans who visited Uganda last year visited for sporting events such as golf and rugby tournaments, festivals and music concerts.
Kenya intends to market its sandy beaches, marine parks, game drives, sky diving and deep seas diving among other tourism products in Uganda while the latter targets to market its mountain gorillas, tree climbing lions and over 1063 bird species in national parks to potential Kenyan visitors.
“The conference theme depicts the importance of building synergies and complementarity based on the different tourism products bought by Uganda and Kenya cost,” added Fatuma Achani, Governor of Kwale County.
Already, more than 200 delegation from Uganda are set to embark on a coastal tour to sample various products and create networks with their Kenyan counterparts.
