The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) on Friday launched the 8th edition of the Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo which scheduled for 23-25th May 2024 at Speke Resort Munyonyo.
Since its inception in 2015, POATE has over the years become not only Uganda’s and East Africa’s tourism signature event but also a global networking link for exhibitors, buyers, investors and suppliers in the tourism sector.
Themed “Responsible Tourism”, the 8th edition seeks to foster tourism that is sensitive to its footprint on the environment, community and culture.
“Through the theme “responsible tourism” we are creating awareness about the impact of tourism on the environment, local community and culture. We are calling on people to be mindful of how their general conduct impacts the mentioned aspects. We require of our guests to practice proper waste management, particularly plastic waste. We are going to restrict the use of plastic at the POATE venue. We encourage use of reusable plastic not the one offs,” Lilly Ajarova, UTB CEO said in her remarks at the launch.
Ajarova also stated that to this end, they are encouraging partnerships with people in the plastic recycling business as a concerted effort to minimize plastic use, boost proper disposal and recycling.
“The objectives of POATE 2024 include among others; to bring together all the various players in the tourism and travel industry; national, regional and international to engage with each other through the business to business and business to consumer sessions. We will be sharing information the current trends in the travel and tourism sector through seminars curated by industry experts. We will also be having hosted buyers who will do familiarization trips to sell Uganda better,” She added.
Speaking at the launch, the State Minister for Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities Hon. Martin Mugarra said the National Development Goal 3 (NDG3) recognizes tourism as one of the priority sectors making a substantial contribution to the general development of the country by generating foreign exchange through the tax and non-tax revenues, stimulating infrastructure development and enhancing livelihoods of the communities in the rural areas where the tourist attractions are located.
The Minister said POATE is a key driver for marketing destination Uganda and bolstering the business within the sector.
“POATE is a big event for the tourism industry. It links the Ugandan private sector players with clients outside Uganda. Last year we hosted around 95 big time sellers of tourism across the globe. Hosted buyers in particular come here and explore the country which puts them in a better position to sell Uganda because they have got the actual experience. This way, they market better, package better and even negotiate with real business people here other than dealing with middlemen,” Mugarra said.
Regarding the Responsible tourism, the Minister stated that tourism and conservation are inseparable and that Uganda needs to adopt environmentally friendly practices to foster conservation and sustainability.
“It is important that we put out a clear message that without the environment, we wouldn’t be discussing tourism today. We are enforcing measures to support this cause and move with the global call on conservation and sustainability. In Uganda, kaveera is the order of the day, which is detrimental to conservation efforts so the theme is timely as we call upon Ugandans to adhere accordingly.
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POATE Success Story
Joan Kantu, the Minister of Tourism Tooro Kingdom and a private tour operator commended POATE noting that at 8 years old, the initiative not only helps tour operators to market Uganda to the outside world but also spread the tourism sermon within Uganda.
“Thank you so much UTB for reflecting to see what matters in our industry. During the virtual POATE in 2021, Let’s Go Travel (a tour company) had over 60 appointments, out of those over half of them materialized to become real queries on information they wanted and from these, we are doing business with about 20 agents were received and we are doing business with them up to today. In the next edition, we got 5 agents that we are still servicing up to today. We are looking forward to the 2024 edition,” Kantu said.
According to UTB, the POATE initiative seeks to further consolidate the Explore Uganda – the Pearl of Africa brand but also be a major a gateway to networking opportunities, business linkages and showcasing destination Uganda.