In the recently released survey findings, Uganda tourism has been tiered at position 112 on T&T competiveness out of 140 countries surveyed. That is 25 spots ahead of Burundi which at 137 is the worst ranked in East Africa and 30 spots behind Kenya which is the best ranked. Rwanda is at 107 and Tanzania at 95.
The latest Travel & Tourism (T&T) Competitiveness Report 2019 shows the challenges of implementing a business strategy for Uganda’s tourism sector. The T&T Competitiveness Index (TTCI) measures factors and policies that enable the development and competitiveness of a country’s travel and tourism sector.
This report comes at a time where Uganda has been pushing hard to improve its T&T sector competitiveness. The sector earned the country US$1.3 billion in FY2018/19 from a low US$498 billion ten years ago. It projected to bring in US$2.7 billion annually in the short-run. In 2018 the country recorded 1.6 million international tourist arrivals.
With its recently launched national airline specifically to boost its travel and tourism, Uganda pumped an extra Shs.60 billion to fix so-called tourism roads, and concentrated on developing hotel infrastructure near nature reserves, and rehabilitation of new and old cultural and heritage sites.
The ranking has four general cluster indices, broken into 14 pillars, namely: Enabling Environment (Business Environment, Safety and Security, Health and Hygiene, Human Resource and Labour market, ICT Readiness), Policy and Enabling Environment (Prioritisation of T&T, International Openness, Price Competitiveness, and Environmental Sustainability) , Infrastructure (Air transport, Ground and Port, Tourism Service Infrastructure), and Natural and Cultural Resources (Natural resources and Cultural resources and business travel).
Each of the four clusters was weighted on 25% which means the Natural and Cultural Resources cluster carries the most weight – and Uganda scores very highly here.
This cluster covers number of World Heritage natural sites, known species, total protected areas, natural tourism, and attractiveness of natural assets. Based on these, Uganda scores very highly at number 38 globally. Regionally, however, the score is no so impressive since neighbouring countries are equally, if not better, endowed than Uganda. Tanzania is ranked number 12 globally followed by Kenya at 18. Only Rwanda at 88 and Burundi at 124 lag behind Uganda.
But Uganda has a bonus. It is among the most competitive on price. Only eight African countries are more competitive on price; three of them in North Africa and five in Sub-Saharan Africa. All of them do not have natural resources equal to Uganda. Should Uganda, therefore, strategise to compete on price or on natural resources?
Kenya and Tanzania which have more natural resources are a bit more costly to visit. Kenya is ranked 90 globally and Tanzania 65. So Uganda at 39 easily beats them on price competiveness. But winning on price could be a poisoned chalice. It might mean attracting the cheapest travellers looking for a bargain. In this case, Uganda could be pricing it rich natural heritage cheaply.
Compare that with Kenya which sells enjoyment of its natural resources for a premium. It is one of the most expensive places to visit in Africa at rank 110 globally. Apart from a few odd destinations, only Seychelles and Mauritius are more expensive.
The top ranked countries on the index; Spain, France, Germany, Japan, and USA are not necessarily the best on any of the 14 pillars. Instead, they score highly in each while other countries score highly on one pillar but are poor on another.
The leaders to benchmark on some of the pillars are: enabling environment (Switzerland), Business Environment (Hong Kong), Safety and Security (Finland), Health and Hygiene (Austria), Human Resource and Labour market (USA), ICT Readiness (Hong Kong), Policy and Enabling Environment (New Zealand) (Prioritisation of T&T (Malta), International Openness (New Zealand), Price Competitiveness (Iran), and Environmental Sustainability (Switzerland) , Infrastructure (USA), Air transport (Canada), Ground and Port (Hong Kong), Tourism Service Infrastructure (Portugal)), and Natural resources (Mexico) and Cultural resources and business travel (China).
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