The Uganda- Kenya Coast tourism conference and exhibition 2022 kicked off on Thursday in Mombasa, bringing together hundreds of attendees mainly tourism stakeholders from Kenya and Uganda.
The two countries Kenya and Uganda have stepped up efforts to compliment each other in the tourism sector.
According to a report, tourism arrivals in Uganda in 2021 stood at 512,945, out of these 326,387 were from Kenya which translates to 63.63% of all arrivals in Uganda.
Between January and March 2022 close to 95,000 Kenyans visited Uganda for various reasons reporting an increased demand for Kenyan visitors to Uganda due to various events that have taken place in Kampala such as golf, rugby tournaments, music concerts among others.
Speaking during the official opening of the conference, Uganda's Minister for Foreign affairs in charge of regional cooperation John Mulimba called for more cooperation between Kenya and Uganda tourism stakeholders.
Mulimba emphasized the need for peace in the two countries for tourism to thrive.
"If you have good products but no peace then you will not achieve anything. To our tourism stakeholders from Kenya and Uganda present at this conference, please work closely with the security agencies for the industry to thrive" said Mulimba.
Adding" As Uganda, we recently had a challenge due to the outbreak of Ebola virus but all is well and we welcome all visitors to Uganda, we are now safe."
On his part Kenya Coast Tourism Association (KCTA) Chairman Victor Shitaka said Uganda remains one of major market for the Coast tourism industry.
"For the first time in the history of Kenyan Coast different teams from the tourism industry have started partnering, Kenyan Coast and Uganda have come together to promote tourism, this is a major step" said Shitaka.
Adding "Kenyan Coast has it's unique products and this is the same case with Uganda so we believe coming together will work well in complementing the two countries."
Shitaka revealed that they will also be seeking to partner with other East Africa countries.
"We are looking forward to increasing our numbers as the Kenya Coast. We are targeting to increase our numbers by 10% in the next six months" Shitaka revealed.
