High Commissioner of the Republic of Uganda Dorothy Samali Hyuha flagged off Representatives of ten Malaysian Tour and Travel Agents on a familiarization trip to Uganda.

Kampala, Uganda | Julius Businge | The Uganda Tourism Board in collaboration with the Uganda High Commission in Malaysia are currently hosting a group of 10 Malaysian tour operators including one journalist, a representative from the Ethiopian airlines and one official from the Uganda High Commission in Malaysia to a tour experience of Uganda.

The group jetted in earlier in the week and will be in the country until February 25, 2019, according to a press release circulated by Uganda Tourism Board on Feb.22.

By close of business on Feb.22, the group had visited, the Uganda Wildlife Education Center in Entebbe, Chimpanzee Sanctuary on Ngamba Island, Igongo Cultural Center in Mbarara, and Queen Elizabeth National Park in Kasese and were en route to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Kigezi for the Mountain Gorilla encounter and experience.

According to one of the visiting tour operators from Malaysia, Athman A. Aziz, Uganda’s beauty and hospitality is amazing and has never met kinder people than Ugandans, the press release adds.

“Uganda is such a beautiful country and is has so much to be seen. I was mostly amazed by the beautiful sceneries, the chimpanzee sanctuary on Ngamba Island, the amazing stories of the diverse cultures of the people of Uganda and the abundance of food. The trip is so far a delight and I cannot wait to encourage Malaysians to visit,” Athman was quoted by UTB as saying.

Speaking on behalf of the UTB, the outgoing CEO Stephen Asiimwe said that this trip speaks into the country’s efforts to continuously market Uganda as Africa’s premier destination.

“As the Uganda Tourism Board expands marketing efforts to Asia, this trip comes as a great opportunity to showcase Uganda to Malaysian travel agents; with the aim to increase travel trade between the two countries and ultimately the number of visitors coming to Uganda from Malaysia and the Asian continent at large,” Asiimwe said.

According to UTB, tourism is one of the leading supporters of the economy, contributing 10% to Uganda’s GDP. This translates into more than Shs5.1 trillion ($1.4 billion) annually, and is projected to earn about Shs10 trillion ($2.7 billion) by 2020.