The state minister for tourism, Martin Mugarra Bahinduka has said increased digital innovations in the tourism sector will help drive up the number of travelers to Uganda.
"The demand for the Ugandan destination is there. However, many people are not aware of what to visit here. Most of the people who come here don't get into the actual tourism bit of it but rather come to do business, visit relatives and other activities without us fully benefiting from their stay here. However, digital innovations will help avail information to such types of travelers," Mugarra said.
"These innovations will help in such a way that even if you are in Kampala, you will just go online and get to know which places to visit and spend time. This will be the same case with upcountry destinations that the world will get to know what they have to offer. This way, the number of travelers to Uganda will go up."
The minister was on Tuesday speaking during the launch of the Tour Plug, an online platform that brings together tour operators and members of the public seeking information about trips about various destinations.
Mugarra said the advent of the Covid pandemic was a great lesson to the country about using digital platforms in all sectors of the economy.
He also encouraged the tour operators to go digital which he touted as helping them reach a bigger audience.
"We are now in a technology world and everything now is digital. There is no reason tour operators should walk around with flyers trying to market destination Uganda yet you can pay a small subscription fee and the benefits are enormous."
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Mugarra said such digital platforms are also key for generating data about the tourism sector.
According to Ajena Jafar, the Chief Executive Officer for Tour Plug, the platform is a market place to link tour operators, travelers, accommodation facilities and other service providers.
"We not reinventing the will but mainly focusing on providing a platform to link African travelers to Uganda. Tour Plug is taking away the aspect of people going to social media to look for where to travel to. They now have to log into the website and know where to travel to," Jafar said.
He said that unlike many other platforms, the Tour Plug will leverage on Artificial Intelligence to customize experiences for travelers.
"We are refocusing data and targeting travelers and the experiences they like. We will focus mainly on African travelers. They can be allowed to book destinations basing on price range, activities they want to do and destinations they want to go to," Jafar said.
