President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Sunday commissioned the Mbale Wildlife Conservation Education Centre, known as Mbale Zoo and unveiled a conservation strategy for the Elgon sub-region. He was presiding over Uganda’s national World Tourism Day celebrations at Mbale Secondary School.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority established the centre to promote conservation education and tourism in the sub-region. The strategy focuses on protecting forests and wetlands from encroachment.
The Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Hon. Col. Tom Butime, used the occasion to report the sector’s best results yet. He also made three appeals to the President: sustained investment in tourism infrastructure outside Kampala, stronger support for the meetings and events industry, and easier entry into Uganda, including a possible return of visa-on-arrival.
The celebrations were held under the global theme “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism”. World Tourism Day is marked every 27 September and has been held annually since 1980. This year El Salvador hosted the official global celebrations.
Why Mbale
Uganda’s tourism authorities have been steadily rotating the national celebrations away from wildlife parks and towards local cultures. Previous editions were held in Kalangala, Arua and Gulu and last year’s in the Greater Rwenzori region.
The build-up in Mbale began with a thematic conference at Mount Elgon Hotel on 25 September. A national clean-up campaign and sports competitions followed on the 26th and a procession to the main venue on Sunday.
Minister Butime said the choice of venue was deliberate, calling Mbale the gateway to the Elgon tourism region.
A recovery that outran the world
Uganda received 1,642,215 international visitors in 2025, up from 1,371,895 in 2024. That is growth of 19.7%, against about 4% for global international arrivals in the same year. The result puts Uganda at 106% of its 2019 performance.
Receipts reached UGX 5.83 trillion, about US$1.62 billion, an increase of 21.3%. Tourism contributes 5.9% of GDP and directly supports over 876,000 jobs, or 7.5% of total employment. It also accounts for roughly 10% of total exports and more than half of service exports.
Minister Butime said visitors stayed an average of 8.8 nights, up from 7.6 nights in FY2023/24 but well short of the government’s 14-night target. He said every shilling spent promoting the sector returns Shs2.6, and announced that the 2026/27 allocation for tourism development rises to Shs567 billion.
The growth was broad across markets. Long-haul arrivals rose 140.4% in 2025, with European arrivals up 208%, American arrivals up 137% and Asian arrivals up 98.9%.
Entebbe handled 2,486,893 international passengers in 2025, up from 2,243,104 the year before.
President Museveni said the figures are not merely statistics but jobs, foreign exchange and markets for Ugandan businesses.
Tested by Ebola
The sector was still recovering from COVID-19 when Ebola struck this year. Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo declared an outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain on 15 May, and the WHO Director-General declared it a public health emergency of international concern two days later. There is no licensed vaccine or specific treatment for the strain.
Uganda’s own outbreak stayed small, with 20 infections in total and the last confirmed case on 21 June. Uganda announced the interruption of local transmission on 28 July. WHO and Africa CDC later welcomed the formal end of the outbreak after 42 consecutive days without a new confirmed case since the last imported patient was discharged on 16 July. The ECDC records the WHO declaration as 25 August. Cases in DR Congo were still rising when the all-clear was given.
“Perception can sometimes travel faster than facts,” the Minister said. He called for closer engagement with source-market governments so that travel advisories are current and geographically specific.
The numbers hint at the cost. Between January and June 2026, Uganda received 739,815 international visitors, only 3.7% more than in the same period of 2025. That half-year included the outbreak, though the figures alone do not show how much of the slowdown it caused.
Visas, events and the 2027 Cup
The Minister’s appeal on visas ties into the biggest event on Uganda’s calendar. The 2027 Africa Cup of Nations will be co-hosted by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania under the “Pamoja” initiative. It will be the first time the tournament has been played in East Africa in over 50 years.
Mr Museveni has endorsed a proposed common East African entry visa that would let fans, officials and teams move between the three countries for four months. Uganda already operates a similar arrangement with Kenya and Rwanda.
Minister Butime said the tournament should show that African integration “can also be experienced through tourism”. He argued that a mega event’s economic footprint reaches well beyond the host city, through hotels, transport, food producers and crafts. Uganda currently requires visa-prone travellers to obtain online authorisation before travel. He said visa-related difficulties still affect some international visitors, alongside limited access to capital.
The AI questions
The theme is more than fashion. GSTC’s commentary on this year’s day notes that the technology under discussion is already deciding, daily, which destinations travellers see.
The Minister cited digital booking platforms, smart park gates and AI-supported safari planning as ways to improve the visitor experience. His sharper point was about conversion: Uganda’s digital campaigns have generated visibility, and the task now is to turn impressions into enquiries, bookings and longer stays. “AI can sell the destination. But only Ugandans can deliver the experience,” he said.
Permanent Secretary Doreen Katusiime made the capacity point: “We cannot promote a 21st-century tourism destination using yesterday’s tools.”
The mountain and the ritual
Mount Elgon is an extinct volcano whose first eruption was about 24 million years ago. Its highest point, Wagagai, rises to about 4,321 metres on the Ugandan side. The summit area holds a 40 km² caldera, one of the largest intact volcanic craters in the world. The national park protects 1,145 km² of the mountain, and Elgon-area Arabica coffee is marketed under its own grades. Sipi Falls drops in three cascades on the lower slopes.
The region’s most distinctive product is cultural, and the timing suited the occasion. Ms Katusiime noted that Elgon is in the Imbalu season. The rites are held every even year among the Bamasaba of Bulambuli, Sironko, Mbale, Namisindwa, Bududa and Manafwa districts. The season begins in August and lasts four months. The Uganda Tourism Board reported more than 30,000 people at three days of festivities in 2016, and the Kadodi dance escorts the initiates to the ceremony grounds.
“Why should Imbalu not become one of Africa’s great cultural celebrations?” Ms Katusiime asked. She proposed an annual Elgon Cultural and Entertainment Season combining music, dance, fashion, food, sport, exhibitions and business. Her condition was that the culture stays authentic and that communities remain at the centre of both the experience and the benefits.
Conservation and last-mile access
President Museveni said forests, wetlands, rivers, mountains and national parks are national economic assets, and that conservation must bring tangible benefits to surrounding communities. He urged Ugandans to travel their own country, noting that domestic tourism supports the industry when global shocks disrupt foreign arrivals. Uganda recorded 3.27 million domestic tourists last year.
He also called on the private sector to package Elgon’s attractions so that visitors stay longer, spend more and return. Reports of his remarks say he pledged last-mile infrastructure, meaning roads, electricity, water and communications, to reach tourism sites.
The distance still to travel
The Minister spoke of growing tourism receipts towards US$50 billion. That is the long-run potential the government attaches to tourism under its Tenfold Growth Strategy, which aims to expand the economy from roughly US$50 billion to US$500 billion by 2040. It is about thirty times 2025’s earnings. The National Development Plan IV sets a nearer-term target of US$10 billion in foreign exchange earnings.
Funding is short of the plan. Current tourism programme funding stands at UGX 492.82 billion, against the UGX 620 billion required under NDP IV. CEO East Africa Magazine has argued that 2025’s growth still falls short of the pace needed to reach US$4 billion by 2028/29 and US$5 billion by 2030.
Minister Butime said he wants Mbale remembered as the place where Uganda renewed its commitment to making tourism a central pillar of national transformation.
The figures at a glance
- 1,642,215 international visitors in 2025, up 19.7% from 2024
- US$1.62 billion (about UGX 5.83 trillion) in receipts, up 21.3%
- 876,000+ direct jobs, or 7.5% of total employment
- 5.9% of GDP
- Shs567 billion allocated to tourism development in 2026/27