The big question asked by all tourism players is why the government looks at tourism as a major foreign exchange earner every financial yet for every year, government allocates very small resources for promoting and sustaining the sector.

Well. the answer to all this question was brought to light during the 5th Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities Joint Sector review which was held last week at hotel Africana.

According to Daphne Rutaraka, an economist on the tourism desk at the ministry of finance, the body in charge of tourism in Uganda – the ministry of Tourism does not come up with Uganda tourism promotion projects – which makes it hard for government to allocate finances with out a promotional plan. She added that, projects are annually reviewed in January which is fast approaching yet the ministry of tourism has not forwarded any project yet.

Daphine added that, if there is no project forwarded, however much she wants the tourism industry to receive an increase in funding, its impossible without clear evidence from the ministry of Tourism.

At last the weaknesses in the management of the ministry of Tourism has been exposed! According to Herbert Byaruhanga, the president of the of Uganda Tourism Association (UTA) a smaller body under the ministry of tourism, “We didn’t know they are the reason we don’t get enough funding.”

The country has only had one serious tourism promotion project – the “Friend a Gorilla” campaign, which later died a natural death. According to the minister for Tourism in Uganda Maria Mutagamba; her staff lacked the know how to come up with good project plans.

The few projects the staff have presented, she sent to UNDP [United Nations Development Programme] asking them to finance project proposals because right now we depend on experts whose projects are usually lacking

The CEO of the Uganda Tourism Board; Steven Asiimwe revealed that the tourism board is to recruit a product development manager who will be in charge of coming up with tourism products. Some of the new products that Asiimwe said they would be focusing on were dark tourism, where they intend to introduce the Amin trail and museum and Joseph Kony, and Kibwetere products, among others.

According to the 2013/14 tourism sector annual performance report, the overall approved budget allocation was Shs 64.7 billion, which was a seven per cent increment from what the sector got the year before.

Of this, however, only $350,000 (about Shs 900m) went to marketing the country – with the rest of the money paying wages and office rent. This year, the government allocated an unprecedented $2m (Shs 5.2bn) to marketing, but it is like a drop in the ocean compared to what Uganda’s neighbors: Kenya ($38m), Tanzania ($17m) and Rwanda ($5m) invest in tourism marketing.