UGANDA’S EXHIBITION STAND JUDGED AS BEST OF THE EVENT
(Posted 05th March 2019)
Uganda, at the just concluded INDABA tourism trade show in Durban, South Africa, bagged a Gold Award for the exhibitions best stand. The recognition was handed to Prof. Kamuntu, Minister for Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, by South Africa’s President Ramaphosa, who had come to close the exhibition. INDABA 2019 had to be hastily shifted to new dates after Ramaphosa announced the country’s election dates falling on the originally planned period the trade show was to be held.
Tourism Board CEO Lilly Ajarova expressed her satisfaction and delight, saying UTB put a lot of effort into the stand design and decorations to give visitors the right feel about coming to Uganda.
At hand to receive the framed certificate was Tourism Minister Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu and other officials and exhibitors.
On a sour note though were a number of Ugandans denied Visa to South Africa after being hit twice, first by the change of dates of INDABA 2019 due to the upcoming elections in South Africa and then after spending extra funds to rebook their tickets – where that was possible – pay deposits for participation, at times even for stand spaces and pay for their hotels besides wasting their Visa application fees. This has caused outrage on social media last week in Uganda after the Visa denials had become public and the scale of them had been revealed.
It is understood that the matter has been raised with government in Kampala but the frequent Visa denials by South Africa for Ugandans, and other nationalities for that matter, belies President Ramaphosa’s contention that ‘Tourism is the new Gold’ for South Africa, when in such a rather discriminating fashion keeping African visitors away from his country.
South Africa’s Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom acknowledged the challenges which remain with his country’s Visa regime when speaking with media representatives on Friday.
See a related article posted by ATCNews a few days ago to better understand what has been going on:
https://atcnews.org/2019/05/03/southafricantourism-launches-new-tech-initiative-but/
