When Finance Minister Henry Musasizi stood up at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds last Thursday to read Uganda’s largest-ever national budget, he had a moment that the tourism industry had been waiting years to hear.
“Tourism is one of Uganda’s most powerful export industries,” he told the gathered dignitaries and a live national audience. “It generates foreign exchange. It creates jobs. It supports thousands of enterprises. And it showcases Uganda to the world.”
Those were not throwaway words. They came with money attached, Shs 567.32 billion set aside for tourism development in the Financial Year 2026/27. For a sector that was limping along on Shs169 billion just four years ago, the figure feels like a vindication.
For most of the past decade, Uganda’s tourism bosses have watched their counterparts in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania receive budgets that dwarfed Uganda’s. The argument from Kampala was always familiar: the country had priorities, roads, health and education. Tourism would have to wait.
However, the numbers emerging from the sector have made that argument increasingly difficult to sustain.
In 2024, Uganda received 1.37 million international visitors, up from 1.27 million the year before, a 7.7% jump. Earnings rose even faster, climbing 26% to USD 1.28 billion. Then in 2025, those figures leapt again.
Uganda recorded 1.64 million arrivals, with visitors staying an average of 8.8 nights and spending enough to push sector revenues to approximately USD 1.62 billion. By the close of the 2025/26 financial year, the tourism sector had generated $1.8 billion — Shs6.74 trillion for the Ugandan economy.
Coffee, Uganda’s most celebrated export, generates roughly USD 2.46 billion. Tourism is fast becoming the second foreign exchange earner the country has always hoped it could be and the government has taken notice.
The Shs567.32 billion allocation is more than double what the sector received in FY 2024/25, and it comes with a specific spending mandate that goes beyond the usual “marketing and promotion” lines that have historically dominated tourism budgets.
A significant portion will go toward destination branding, positioning Uganda more aggressively in source markets like the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, where high-spending visitors are most likely to come from.
Uganda’s global tourism visibility has already reached what officials described as an all-time high, helped along by the country’s recognition as “Best in Show – Africa” at the 2026 New York Travel & Adventure Show.
But the budget also addresses some of the long-standing practical complaints that have quietly embarrassed the sector. Highway sanitation facilities are being funded, meaning the long, uncomfortable drives through Uganda’s countryside may soon come with decent rest stops.
Refreshment centres are being built at tourist sites. Hospitality standards will be enforced more rigorously, a move the private sector has pushed for years to level the playing field and protect Uganda’s reputation.
Wildlife conservation in national parks is also in the spending plan, a critical line for a country whose biggest drawcard remains its primate population. Uganda is home to roughly half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, and gorilla trekking permits remain one of the most sought-after tourism experiences on the continent.
Health tourism and commercial diplomacy round out the new priorities. The former positioning of Uganda as a destination for medical travel has been discussed in corridors for years. Its inclusion in the budget for the first-time signals that the government is beginning to take it seriously as a revenue stream.
The numbers tell a story of remarkable recovery. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, international arrivals crashed to just 156,000, down from a pre-pandemic peak of 1.52 million in 2019. Hotels shuttered. Safari operators mothballed their vehicles.
The sector, which before the pandemic had employed an estimated 667,600 people and contributed close to 7.7% of GDP, was on its knees.
The rebound has been faster than most people expected. The “Explore Uganda The Pearl of Africa” destination brand, combined with aggressive international marketing and a sustained push into high-value source markets, has helped Uganda not just recover its pre-pandemic visitor numbers but exceed them. The 1.64 million arrivals recorded in 2025 are more than 120,000 above the 2019 peak.
Tourism investor and entrepreneur Amos Wekesa, one of the sector’s most outspoken advocates, welcomed the new budget with one eye still on delivery.
“Our budgets have been miserable over the past few years. Moving from Shs169 billion four years ago to Shs571.5 billion is a very good sign. But we need to ensure we see results,” he said.
It is the kind of measured optimism that characterises many in an industry that has watched promising allocations come and go without always seeing the transformation on the ground.
The tourism allocation sits within Uganda’s largest-ever national budget a Shs84.39 trillion resource envelope for FY 2026/27, up from Shs72.37 trillion the previous year. The government is targeting Shs45.96 trillion in total domestic revenue, of which Shs40.16 trillion is expected to come from tax collections.
The Uganda Revenue Authority closed the 2025/26 financial year in surplus, collecting UGX 31.643 trillion against a target of UGX 31.369 trillion a 100.84% performance and roughly 15.87% growth over the previous year. Domestic taxes contributed UGX 21.252 trillion, while international trade taxes added UGX 11.105 trillion.
Tourism’s contribution to that tax pool, while not separately disaggregated, flows through hotel levies, VAT on tourism services, corporate income tax from hospitality businesses, and customs revenues on tourism goods. The sector is also one of four strategic industries, alongside oil and gas, agro-industry, and ICT, being specifically targeted for broadened tax compliance. Informal operators in tourism who have long stayed under the radar are expected to face increased registration and compliance requirements in the coming year.
The challenge remains structural. Analysis of Uganda’s revenue collection reveals that approximately 1,000 taxpayers account for 80% of all taxes collected a narrow base that the government has been trying for years to widen. Salaried workers and consumers carry a disproportionate share of the tax burden, while large corporations and high-net-worth individuals often contribute less than their economic footprint would suggest.
The tourism sector’s trajectory points toward a USD 2 billion earnings milestone a figure that the government has effectively set as the psychological target for the coming year.
Given that the sector already reached USD 1.8 billion in 2025/26, and that the new budget doubles down on both marketing and infrastructure, the number is within reach.
What getting there will require is well understood. Infrastructure, both inside national parks and on the roads that connect them, needs sustained investment. The cost of tourism in Uganda remains high for what visitors receive, a complaint that surfaces consistently in feedback from international tourists.
Wildlife conservation requires resources to tackle poaching and habitat degradation. And skills development in hospitality, a sector where Uganda’s workforce has historically been under-trained relative to its neighbours, remains a priority.
The government’s own ambition extends well beyond tourism. Uganda is projecting economic growth of 10.2% in FY 2026/27, partly driven by the anticipated start of commercial oil production. Foreign exchange reserves have climbed to USD 6 billion, and total exports of goods and services reached USD 18.04 billion in the year ending March 2026. Uganda is, by several measures, entering a new economic phase.
Tourism, long regarded as a nice-to-have rather than a structural pillar, is finally being positioned differently as a core earner, a job machine, and a showcase for a country that has perhaps undersold itself for too long.
The Shs567 billion is a bet on that story. Whether the money is spent well enough to prove it right is the question the sector will be watching closely.
