The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) organized a one-day training with the Uganda police forces to stimulate the operation of the upcoming enforcement of the tourism legal framework.
The operation targets all unlicensed tourism facilities, including hotels, guest houses, restaurants, and lodges among others, to ensure they comply with legal and industry standards.
According to UTB’s Quality Assurance Manager, Samora Machel Semakula, the operations will start on 18th November 2024 with all tourism facilities in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area and later will be extended to other parts of the country.
“A property that will be found without an operating license will be closed down and required to formally register and apply for a license after fulfilling minimum requirements as per the regulations under the Uganda Tourism Act 2008,” he said.
Semakula, therefore, encouraged all accommodation and other designated tourist facility owners to welcome this move because it aims at improving standards and the visitors’ experience.
Talking to the enforcement team in the training on Saturday at Naguru Uganda police headquarters, Bradford Ochieng, the UTB’s deputy CEO, noted that the country has over 4000 facilities in accommodation, and not even a quarter of those figures are licensed because they don’t meet the required standards.
“Many of these don’t get licenses because of ignorance, while in other cases, it is complacency. Some say the fees are high and use it as a scapegoat for not coming forward to get licensed. However we have been educating them on the benefits of meeting minimum standards and being licensed. At the end of the day, if your facility is compliant and it is on our website, you are getting free marketing. It helps you not to labour to explain to anyone,” he said.
The UTB’s deputy CEO also highlighted that the move is also part of the efforts that the agency is engaged in to ensure that the tourism sector grows its revenues 25 times to $50 billion by 2040 which can only be possible if minimum standards are met by facilities in the sector.
Commissioner of Police Patrick Lawot, the deputy director of Police Counter Terrorism, pledged to work hand in hand with UTB to enforce these standards.
“Our job is to work with UTB to ensure safety and sanity in the tourism sector. We will be assisting them in enforcing standards in all possible ways. If we improve the quality of our services, we will attract more tourists and we will benefit as business owners and as a country at large,” he said.
In addition, Lawot noted that they hope to find no difficulties in the enforcement exercise since they have been engaging the owners of the accommodation facilities and other players.
UTB’s key mandates include fostering cooperation among key stakeholders in the tourism sector, marketing the tourism sector, encouraging investment in the sector, promoting education, training, and research, and developing and monitoring standards in the tourism sector.
Sections 13 and 14 of the Uganda Tourism Act 2008 explain that a person shall not operate any accommodation or other designated tourist facility for payment by tourists unless the facility has been issued with a license by the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB). The law also gives this government agency the authority to close down any facilities that do not have valid licenses.
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