Sustainable Destination Management
Strategies in the OIC Member Countries
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forums will be re-activated as a way of ensuring information sharing. UWA holds community
meetings to disseminate conservation education and awareness in different locations around
protected areas. UWA has a tourism program as a key part of their General Management
strategy. The overall objective is to sustainably generate income for conservation and livelihood
improvement and to achieve this through developing appropriate tourism infrastructure
especially in protected areas where most tourism is based. The plan was prepared through
multi-stakeholder consultations.219
The Regional TourismClusters are the only committees on a destination level that involve public
and private sector stakeholders – there are a total of 15 in Uganda, some a lot more active than
others. The organization is generally loose, and they do not meet regularly, the main gathering
being on World Tourism Day when they are encouraged to organize an event with the support
of UTB. On other occasions, theymeet around training days that they have facilitated. Their main
objective is to manage the product and sustainability in their specific geographic areas. They are,
however, not pushed heavily by Kampala to be more active and are reliant on the individuals in
that area to utilize the platform.220
Funding for Sustainability Activities
Funding from the government to tourism has been limited. While the government has
emphasized their intent to prioritize the tourism sector and provide substantial support, in
reality until the expiry of the Tourism Policy in 2010 there were very little resources allocated.
In 2009/2010 for example despite tourism’s contribution of more than half a billion dollars to
the economy, employing around 500,000 people (almost double the civil service) and generating
4.3% to GDP, the government allocated only UGX 2 billion (US$1 million) budgetary support to
the sector. Objectives aside, tourism promotion and marketing activities for Uganda as a whole
remain very limited due to insufficient government funding, combined with the small budgets
across the majority of the fragmented private sector. The approved UTB budget for 2016/2017
was UGX11 billion, with UGX 9 billion released. UGX 4 billion was allocated to tourismmarketing
and promotion, 0.19 billion to tourism research and development, UGX 0.72 billion to Quality
Assurance and UGX 1.8 billion to UTB support services. UTB is funded by the Ministry of
Finance.221 222
UTB partners with various government and private tourism stakeholders not only to support
investments in the tourism sector but also to collaboratively implement the National Tourism
Master plan. The Uganda Tourism Act 2008 mandates UTB to encourage investment in the
tourism sector and wherever possible, to direct such investment to the less developed Tourism
areas as well as to provide finance and any other assistance to strengthen the Private entities in
the tourist sector where necessary and appropriate.
The Word Bank has funded some of the work in the tourism sector. They funded sustainable
development tourism plans for four districts in Western Uganda which include Mgahinga
National Park, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Rwenzori Mountain National Park, Kibale
219 Uganda Wildlife Authority. (n.d.). BINP General Management Plan 2014 – 2024. Retrieved from
2023.pdf.
220 Interview UTB and Bonifence.
221 International Trade Centre. (2011). Uganda inclusive tourism. Retrieved from
222 Interview UTB.