POATE 2017 NOW UNDERWAY
(Posted 18th February 2017)
The Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo is now underway in Kampala at the Sheraton Hotel gardens. The Uganda Tourism Board together with the Ministry of Tourism and a range of partners, among them the Uganda Wildlife Authority, organized the trade show to allow local tourism businesses meet international buyers and travel media to promote Uganda as a major tourism destination in East Africa.
Deputy Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Kirunda Kivejinja, formally opened the show yesterday morning, setting in to motion preplanned B2B meetings between travel agents and tour operators from some 25 foreign countries and the local tourism trade, i.e. safari operators, hotels and other service providers.
The guests from afar were treated to a cultural show at the Ndere Cultural Centre the night before where they were able to experience the diversity of Uganda’s different tribes before the opening dinner last night gave everyone, locals and visitors, the opportunity to mingle.
Familiarisation tours to the parks, among them Murchison Falls, Queen Elizabeth, Kibale Forest and Bwindi were seen as highlights by the hosted buyers, allowing them to get close up and personal experience of Uganda’s wildlife before then sampling the wide range of options tourists have when visiting Jinja, East Africa’s adventure capital, for a spot of rafting, bungee jumping, horseback riding and a quad bike trip.
The show will conclude on Sunday night with a gala dinner and notably the ceremony for Uganda’s tourism excellence awards, winners to be announced right here soon afterwards.
It is obvious from the various reactions by visitors that Uganda has indeed pulled out all stops to make this international marketing platform a success and the presence of the other East African tourism boards, ministry representatives and industry leaders speaks volumes of how Uganda is today seen as part and parcel of ‘Destination East Africa‘.
For added information about Uganda click on www.visituganda.com or check out www.ugandawildlife.org while the Expo’s own website is http://poate.visituganda.com/
