UGANDA: Uganda Tourist Board (UTB) A Statutory Organisation Established By Uganda Tourist Board Statute 1994

Uganda Tourist Board (UTB) is a statutory organisation established by the Uganda Tourist Board Statute 1994. The Board's mandate is to promote and popularise Uganda as a viable holiday destination both locally and internationally in order to:
- Increase the contribution of tourism earnings and GDP
- Improve Uganda's competitiveness as an international tourism destination
- Increase Uganda's share of Africa's and World tourism market.

Objectives of the Board
In pursuit of the above mandate, the functions of the Board are:
- Increase the quality and volume of tourist arrivals and their expenditures.
- Improve on the marketing and promotion of Uganda as a tourist destination.
- Provide of accurate and timely information services on the country's tourist attractions and facilities.
- Strengthen its capacity for tourism planning, research and marketing? How
- Improve and diversify in consultation with stakeholders' tourist products.
- Enhance and strengthen competitiveness of the private sector in the tourism industry.

Strategy of Tourism marketing development
The Successful marketing of Uganda safaris in the market place requires an effective partnership between the public and private sector. While UTB may have a lead role in destination marketing and in creating promotional opportunities for the Ugandan industry, the sale of the product to the trade and consumer is almost entirely the responsibility of the private sector tourism service providers.

In order to encourage greater partnership with it, the industry in marketing and promotional campaigns, it is important to encourage joint public/private sector promotional opportunities, improve communications and provides more market intelligence and user-friendly research.

Based on the varying needs, structures and stage of development of individual markets and the limitations of resources, each market will be approached with a mix of marketing activities best suited to market conditions. For example, in some markets, the campaigns may include both consumer and trade promotional activities such as advertising, publicity, trade and consumer promotions whereas in other markets, the focus may be exclusively on working with the travel trade.

Partnership with existing airlines operators in Uganda and market based travel trade, will be encouraged, to maximise impact in the value achieved and level of business generated. In addition, a greater use of new information technology for information and distribution functions will be promoted.

In order to maximise the effectiveness of the limited resources - budgets and capable personnel - a consistent approach will require that resources are allocated on the basis of a prioritisation of markets that offer the best potential for tourist earnings.