Browsing: East Africa tourism

East Africa has made huge strides in improving the tourism sector in the bloc. So far, three countries have embraced the Single Tourist visa making it easier for the bloc to market it as a single destination as well as allowing tourists access to all three countries from one visa.

The single tourist visa was introduced in 2014 as a pilot between Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. Under the initiative, tourists can choose between a single-country visa or an EAC tourist visa. With the latter, they are allowed to move freely between the three countries for a period of up to 90 days.

In October 2020, the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) released a report citing the tourism situation in the region.

The EALA noted that certain overriding challenges, including sector underfunding, insecurity, and lack of harmonized policies and laws, need to be speedily addressed to ensure that the sector thrives.…

There has been growth in searches and bookings to East African Community countries with Tanzania leading as a leisure destination.

This is according to data by the Kenya Association of Travel Agents (KATA) and Amadeus search and agency booking which shows a very slight improvement in both outbound and inbound search demand and booking volumes for 2021 year to date, while compared to the same period in 2020.

The booking agency indicates that travel demand remains significantly below pre-COVID-19 levels owing to international travel restrictions in key markets in Europe, North America and Asia.

According to KATA, there has been a growing demand for inbound travel into Kenya from USA, Germany and UK.

“Domestic travel searches remain high as people are looking to travel more within the country. However, overall travel demand to and from Kenya stands at -69.9% in June 2021 compared to same time in 2019,” the travel …

Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo 2020 was hosted in Kampala Uganda where Tourism players from across Africa gathered to discuss the industry’s future prospects.

This was the 5th Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo (POATE), it was under the theme ‘promote intra-Africa tourism’ organized by the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB).

The event attracted around 57 international hosted buyers, 140 domestic and regional tourism operators as well as international and domestic media.

The Expo was officially opened by Moses Ali, the first deputy prime minister and deputy leader of Government Business in Parliament, on behalf of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

Uganda’s President said POATE would go a long way in expanding business opportunities in the tourism sector in Uganda and the entire East African region.

Museveni added that Uganda has significantly invested in creating “peace and stability, good road networks, enough electricity supply, better telecommunications networks and internet.” he added that these …