Uganda Tourism Association (UTA), a body under which all tourism associations in Uganda fall held an annual general meeting on 1st/Oct/2013 and during this, they were able to vote for a new president of the association who turned out to be Herbert Byaruhanga. He will be serving for the next 2 years after the latter serving as the temporary president for the last six months.
Byaruhanga said while talking after the AGM at Hotel Africana in Kampala that his efforts in the next two years of office will be more on improving the image of the association which has been spoilt by some members of the public and also strengthen the relationship between the private sector specifically in tourism business and the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) which is the umbrella body for the all private sectors in the country.
This is in an effort to have PSFU provide UTA with some technical advice on how to run the association and grow the sector especially since there are so many opportunities in tourism and once exploited, the sector will be able to create more jobs for people and thus more taxes paid to government and in the end contribute positively to the country’s economic growth.
According to the analysis done by the World Bank, Uganda’s tourism sector earned the government over US$1 billion in 2012 from US$800 million which was collected in 2011 and in this case, the sector contributes over 5.5 percent of the GDP which is a huge contribution.
Uganda is blessed with one of the largest and variety of natural resources on the African continent ranging from fresh water bodies like lakes and rivers, Loft Mountains, forests, numerous flora and fauna to mention but a few and these are all great tourist attractions that other