Wednesday’s announcement declaring Uganda Ebola-free has come as relief for the tourism and hospitality industry which is still reeling from the aftershocks of the Covid pandemic.
In September last year, the Ministry of Health announced an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda, particularly in Mubende district. In subsequent weeks, more cases were reported in 8 more districts including the capital Kampala.
However, the Ministry of Health did its best to contain the epidemic and as of Tuesday, the deaths were 55. Now, after 42 days with no new case (as per World Health Organization standards), Uganda has been declared free of Ebola.
Uganda has declared the end of its Ebola outbreak after 113 days. I love reporting these positive African stories on CNN pic.twitter.com/MLBd94q8Xh
— Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) January 11, 2023
Tourism is a fragile sector that is highly averse to life-threatening situations like epidemics. Which is why many businesses in tourism and hospitality have since September had to contend with cancellations from foreigners who had plans to visit Uganda.
“Cancellations have been there. Some visitors have had to postpone their visit by two years or three. There has been a consistent drop of tourists in the country based on the imminent fear of the disease,” Gessa Simplicious the public relations officer for Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) told Plugged.
“It is very hard to market a destination when people are fearing for their safety,” he added.
Ebola was a double blow to businesses that had borrowed heavily to stay afloat during the pandemic which closed international travel. Even after the lockdown was lifted, players still continued to borrow and invest in anticipation of the boom in visitors.
“The disadvantage with Ebola was that it isolated us as a country. Everybody else apart from Uganda had a safe destination.”
Prior to the Covid pandemic, Uganda’s annual tourist arrivals stood at 1.5m (in 2019). But this number dropped by more than half, to about half a million in 2020.
January is a peak season for tourism, and that is when most businesses hope to rake in good revenue. But for Florence Kabibi, who runs Emburara Farm Lodge (in Mbarara) and Chimpundu Lodge (in Kibale national park), this year comes with losses instead.
“With tourism, people plan 6 months or even a year ahead. Some of these had made deposits. But then we began to receive messages of ‘We can’t travel until the Ebola situation has changed’. ‘We can’t tell what the status will be by January’. ‘We are sorry we can’t travel’. Those are the stories we were getting,” Florence explained to Plugged Wednesday.
She says Wednesday’s announcement is very welcome and could begin to reverse these cancellations, after all, by the time someone makes a booking, there are reasons why they are interested in that destination.
Tourism was Uganda’s leading foreign exchange earner before the Covid pandemic. It earned the country $1.6 bn and contributed about 8 percent to the GDP and over 500,000 jobs.
Just like Covid, epidemics like Ebola have a big bearing on the decision-making for a person looking to travel. Beyond just the fear of eventualities like death, tourists are turned off by the inconvenience that comes with protocols like screenings or filling out forms on arrival.
When a group of 10 people, each couple paying $500 (Ushs 1.85m) per night to stay at your lodge for 3 days, cancels the reservation, the impact of this can be painful. For a business where bookings are not guaranteed throughout the year, $7,500 (Ushs 27.75m) is the much-needed cushion to sustain a lodge’s operations during off-peak months.
That’s not to mention the other revenue that a tourist spends during their stay in Uganda. A farmer who relies on lodges to sell their foodstuffs or livestock loses too. And so does the tour guide and tour company who take the tourists around, and the government which loses out on park entry fees.
In other words, whereas WHO has declared Uganda Ebola-free, it might take players in the tourism industry months to recover from the impact of cancellations.
“If they (intending visitor) have already deposited, you have to refund the money, and sometimes you have already spent the money. So, you have to dig from your other source and make sure the client’s money is paid, because you don’t want to lose that agent,” added Florence.
“So, when you see us (tourism players) begging the Ministry of Health and media not to make announcements that cause panic, it’s only because it has that real economic impact and it hits us hard.”
She has had up to 30 people cancelling their trips due to Ebola.
However, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) shares a different story.
There was instead an increase in the number of visitors going into national parks in the recent festive season compared to 2021, according to Bashir Hangi the UWA Communications Manager.
“Despite the Ebola scare, we (UWA) clearly communicated the safety measures in our parks. That assured the visitors, both local and international, that they could visit the parks and return to their homes safe of disease. We demonstrated that the parks were far away from areas that had Ebola,” Hangi told Plugged.
Using its digital channels (web and social media), UWA vigorously communicated its safety protocols – strictly adhering to guidelines by the Health Ministry and explaining Uganda’s record in effectively managing Ebola epidemics.
In 2022, UWA continued to witness a growth in the number of Ugandans interested in visiting the country, a trend that began during the Covid pandemic. With the halt in international flights, government had turned its efforts to the local market and stepped up campaigns to woo Ugandans to explore what their country has to offer. This on top of the renewed desire by Ugandans who had been sitting in their homes for months, to travel.
“Can you imagine that we have Ugandans who now pay Ushs 250,000 to go and track gorillas? It’s because they have now woken up to the fact that it’s actually affordable to go to these parks and that they can find affordable accommodation there,” Hangi says
Now that the country is out of the woods (Ebola), UTB is looking to amplify its marketing – using the private sector and market destination representatives -to tell the world that Uganda is safe and that a lot of good experiences await. The roll out of the program for the annual Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo (POATE) is also in its final stages.
The expo is one of the signature events that puts the spotlight on Uganda’s attractions, and it targets tour operators, regional markets, hosted buyers and the media.
