About

Summary 

CBI, the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries is part of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. It needed to assess the potential to conduct a five-year programme to support SME tourism businesses in Uganda to increase sales of their services in the European markets. To inform this decision, CBI commissioned Acorn to produce a Value Chain Analysis of Uganda’s Tourism Sector in order to identify where CBI could most effectively provide technical expertise to support the growth of SME tourism exports to Europe. 

Our Approach

The Value Chain Analysis consisted of four sections. The first analysed the tourism trends and European consumer demand that create opportunities for Uganda. It assesses the country’s comparative advantage and its tourism offer to identify the new products and regions that could tap into these European market trends. 

The second section of the report describes the structure and governance of the tourism value chain and assesses the social and environmental issues that may affect its sustainability. 

The research for the study included:

• A review of Uganda’s existing tourism sector strategic plans and global travel trends 
• Analysis of 35 tour operator websites in Uganda’s top 10 European source markets 
• Telephone consultations with 15 European tour operators in September 2019
• Face-to-face consultation with more than 60 tourism stakeholders in January 2020.

In the third section of the VCA, the market opportunities Uganda could benefit from are reviewed together with the obstacles that restrict the ability of micro, small and medium size enterprises (MSMEs) to capitalise on these opportunities. 

The final section recommended the interventions that could enable the private sector in Uganda to attract more European tourists and strengthen the sector. 

Outcome

This report was written in February 2020, before the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was recognised. A stakeholder validation workshop to discuss the recommendations of the report was due to take place in Kampala in March, however the workshop had to be cancelled due to the travel restrictions caused by the pandemic. 

However, many of the issues raised in the VCA were fundamental to the long-term competitiveness and growth of Uganda’s tourism sector and the need for them to be addressed was even more urgent due to the impact of the Covid-19 crisis. The findings from the extensive research and engagement with Uganda’s stakeholders and with the international trade highlighted that support for the sector needed to be focused on: 

• Market driven planning and product development
• A national branding and marketing strategy
• Skills training to meet customer expectations and safety concerns
• Sustainability training and accreditation.