Uganda and Kenya are expected to put the high cost of air travel at the centre of discussions at the 5th Uganda-Kenya Coast Tourism and Innovation Summit as tourism stakeholders seek ways of increasing cross-border tourist numbers.
The summit, scheduled for October 26–27 in Mombasa, will bring together tourism operators, government officials, investors, technology innovators and other stakeholders under the theme “Unlocking Tourism Opportunities, Resolving Policy Bottlenecks through Technology, Youth and Seamless Mobility across East Africa.”
Speaking during the launch of the summit in Kampala, Stephen Asiimwe, the Chief Executive Officer of the Private Sector Foundation Uganda, said the cost of travel remains one of the biggest obstacles to unlocking the potential of regional tourism.
“Our biggest challenge, why we are not seeing the numbers between Kenya and Uganda, and largely East Africa, is the cost of travel. The distance between Entebbe and Nairobi is about 500-something kilometres, yet the flight takes about 50 minutes. But my ticket, by this morning, because I’m flying tomorrow morning at 8, give and take, is $800,” Asiimwe said.
He argued that reducing airfares would have a direct impact on tourism volumes because more affordable travel would encourage people to visit more frequently, stay longer and spend more at destinations.
“If we reduce the cost of flying between the two capitals, it then means that we shall have more travel, more stay, more spend, and our GDP performance on tourism is going to improve. And that’s what’s classical. So, Honourable Minister of Tourism, this is something we need to address very quickly,” he said.
Asiimwe said the problem was not limited to travel between Kampala and Nairobi, citing the cost of travelling to Mombasa as another barrier to deeper tourism ties.
He said a ticket to the Kenyan Coast could cost about $700, arguing that such prices make it difficult for the two countries to maximise the potential of their geographically close but complementary tourism markets.
The issue is particularly significant because tourism flows already exist in both directions.
Uganda’s tourism officials have previously identified Kenya as an important source market, while Ugandans are also a significant market for Kenya’s tourism industry. At the previous Uganda-Kenya Coast tourism conference, officials cited more than 466,000 Kenyans visiting Uganda and about 225,559 Ugandans visiting Kenya.
Officials said the summit provides an opportunity for governments, airlines and the private sector to examine whether lower airfares, improved connectivity and better travel arrangements can unlock significantly higher numbers.
The organisers have previously positioned the Uganda-Kenya tourism partnership around complementarity rather than competition, with Uganda’s wildlife, gorillas, adventure and inland tourism products complementing Kenya’s beaches, marine tourism and coastal attractions.
David Kabata, Minister Counsellor at the Kenyan High Commission in Kampala, said East Africa’s tourism potential was being constrained by fragmented systems, mobility challenges, limited connectivity and policy bottlenecks.
“Our intention is to move the conversation from simply promoting destinations to examining systems, policies and partnerships that determine how effective tourists and tourism businesses can access and benefit from these destinations,” Kabata said.
He said technology could help make travel between countries easier by improving destination marketing, travel planning, accommodation bookings, payments, customer engagement and connections between tourism businesses.
Ambassador Leonard Mugerwa, speaking on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, said Uganda wants tourism to become a major anchor of its tenfold growth strategy, with tourism earnings targeted to rise from more than $2 billion annually to $20 billion by 2040.
“Tourism is one of the sectors through which the government of Uganda intends to grow the size of Uganda’s economy. We would like to grow our size of economy from 68 billion dollars currently to 500 billion dollars by 2040. Currently, we are earning over 2 billion dollars annually, but we would like to see that amount increase to 20 billion dollars annually by 2040,” Mugerwa said.
He said both Uganda and Kenya can drive up the number of tourists.
Mugerwa said that more than 460,000 Kenyans visited Uganda last year, while about 235,000 Ugandans travelled to Kenya.
“If you combine the two, we are almost close to 700,000. That tells us there is already a strong relationship between our two countries, but there is still enormous room for growth. If we can make travel easier, improve our marketing and remove some of the barriers that limit movement, we can increase these numbers significantly.”
According to officials, discussions during the summit can help deal with these barriers and in turn grow tourism numbers.
