The Uganda Tourism Association (UTA), and the Uganda Hotel Owners Association (UHOA), have renewed their commitment to collaborate to explore joint opportunities as well as engage stakeholders to address challenges slowing down the sector’s post-COVID-19 recovery, get the sector onto the exponential growth path envisioned under Uganda’s fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV.)
This meeting held at UHOA’s offices in Kololo, Kampala, was attended by UTA President, Yogi Biriggwa, UTA board member Azhar Jaffar, and the UTA Chief Executive Officer, Muhereza Kyamutetera.
The UHOA delegation was led by Susan Muhwezi, the board Chairlady, Cephas Birungyi (General Secretary), and board members Santa Lukone, Donna Mushabe, Alex Ojiambo and Andrew Atim, as well as Jean Byamugisha, the Executive Director.
The meeting discussed the challenges that face the hotel industry, especially an unharmonised, uncompetitive tax regime.
The UHOA Chairlady pointed out that hoteliers in Uganda today pay up to 23 types of central government and local council taxes, licensee fees, as well as statutory contributions.
The meeting noted that besides the comparatively high rates, the high number of taxes makes it difficult and costly to comply for the sector.
Ultimately, all these taxes increase the cost of doing business for the investors on one part and, on the other, reduce Uganda’s competitiveness as a destination for both travellers and investors.
“We are happy to pay our taxes, but it is the way they are imposed and collected and on just a few people that are already reliable and compliant that we have a problem with. What we want is a good harmonised tax policy that keeps us and ultimately Uganda as a tourism and tourism investment destination competitive,” Muhwezi said.
The meeting also discussed the urgent need for joint stakeholder collaboration and investment into regular research, collection, analysis and dissemination of up-to-date sector data to guide policy, regulation, marketing/positioning and consumer experience decisions.
“Accurate tourism sector data enhances evidence-based planning, decision-making, communication, monitoring and evaluation. It helps tourism destinations create a more responsive, personalised, and efficient experience for visitors from the moment they start planning their trip to when they leave. By leveraging data-driven insights, Uganda can better understand and meet visitor expectations, increase satisfaction, and foster increased client loyalty, leading to sustainable growth and a competitive edge in the global tourism market,” Biriggwa noted.
To enhance Destination Uganda’s competitiveness, the two bodies also pointed out the need for the government, private sector and development partners to work together to further enhance access to suitable access to credit/funding for the private sector in the form of affordable commercial credit and other alternative forms of financing such as private equity and venture capital.
On the ongoing Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) regulatory enforcement in the sector, the meeting noted that while standards and quality assurance are important, there was a need for adequate sector engagement and collaboration.
They added that the timing of the enforcement, ahead of the festive season, was inappropriate. They also noted that there was a need to take into consideration, the individual hotels’ challenges as well as the systemic challenges and cost implications.
The meeting further pointed out and discussed other challenges that are holding back Destination Uganda from fully achieving its potential.
These challenges include sub-optimal public investment in the sector to fund key priorities like transport, energy and ICT infrastructure, destination marketing and product development.
Other challenges noted include negative travel advisories by key source markets, internal advisories by government Ministries and Agencies against holding conferences and meetings in hotels, human resources & skills gaps, gender access and participation gaps as well as low digitalisation of the tourism sector.
UHOA and UTA also committed to working more closely to find common solutions to these industry challenges.