Jinja — Uganda Tourism Board and Jinja City Authority have concluded plans to develop Jinja as a gateway tourism city in the Eastern part of Uganda, executives said on May 19.

The plans are a result of a meeting held between the UTB, Jinja City Council officials and the Private Sector at the Jinja City Hall under the theme "Showcasing Tourism Potential for Jinja City.

The meeting was chaired by the acting Jinja Town Clerk - John Gulooba Choli, and was attended by the UTB delegation led by UTB Chairman, Daudi Migereko, Vice Chairperson, Susan Muhwezi, directors, management of the board and other participants.

The stakeholder engagement meeting highlighted the challenges faced by tourism sector in the city as well as strategies to mitigate the hurdles ahead of recovery of the tourism industry. It comes at a time when UTB is profiling Entebbe-Kampala-Jinja City to identify potential tourism sites in these cities, discover tourism opportunities therein, and potential investment areas and promote them as potential tourist destinations.

Gulooba said the tourism sector in Jinja and Busoga region face numerous challenges including limited government funding towards tourism activities, inadequate tourism infrastructure and awareness of the tourism products.

Migereko said there is an urgent need to develop a sound maintenance program for key access roads to tourism hotspots such as Bridge Street and the Source of the Nile. He also said, there is a need to curate, authenticate and standardize the information shared by tour guides at these attractions for an exceptional tourism experience by travellers.

UTB's Tourism City Development Plans have earmarked the development of Jinja as a gateway tourism city in the financial Year 2022/23.