The collaboration between Uganda and the Kenyan Coast to promote tourism is getting stronger by the day.
Indeed, on September 12, the Consulate General of Uganda in Mombasa in conjunction with the County Government of Kwale, Destination Diani and other key stakeholders from Uganda and Kenya Coast held a Media Launch for the Second Uganda- Kenya Coast Tourism Conference 2023 in the coastal county of Kwale.
According to officials, the planned conference will take place from November 13-14, 2023 and will involve excursions at the Kenya Coast from November 15-18, 2023 as well as a familiarization trip to Uganda from 22nd November 22-December 3.
The Conference is expected to attract over 300 tourism players from both countries, with this year’s theme being, “Consolidating Networks, Synergies & Diversity to maximize the tourism potential between Uganda and Kenya Coastal Region.”
“Both countries play a very significant role in each other’s tourism sectors. While Uganda is Kenya’s second biggest market source for tourists, Kenya remains Uganda’s leading source market for travelers,” officials said during the media launch.
The main actors at the summit will include the tourism private and public bodies, travel trade, hotels, airlines, transport companies, safari guides, the diplomatic community, travel writers, culinary and cuisine specialists, academia, immigration, training institutes, among others.
“The conference will also be addressed by the private sector apex bodies like the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), the Chambers of Commerce from both countries,” the officials added.
Uganda and Kenya Coast have unique tourist attractions such as beaches and marine tourism in Kenya as well as mountain gorillas, adventure tourism on the region’s longest river, the Nile, and cultural and religious tourism in Uganda, which attract tourists from both countries.
As a result, there are already opportunities for collaboration and complementarity to boost each other’s tourism sectors.
The Consul General of Uganda to Mombasa, Paul Mukumbya, was quoted emphasizing the importance of promoting collaboration and building synergies between Uganda and Kenya Coast.
“It is important to leverage on the uniqueness of the products between the two countries to promote tourism between Uganda and the Kenya Coast,” he said.
This year’s conference will have testimonies from participants from the 2022 conference who had the opportunity to participate in excursions at the Kenya Coast and the familiarization trip to Uganda. There will also be opportunities to network and build partnerships that can help grow the tourism sector between the two countries.
Mukumbya said Uganda and Kenya enjoy warm “fraternal relations with a combined population of over 100 million people. Both countries have airlines that fly between Mombasa and Entebbe.”
Uganda Airlines has a direct flight between Mombasa and Entebbe.
