By Frank Kamuntu
Uganda will mark this year’s national World Tourism Day celebrations in Mbale City on September 27, with the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) opening selected national parks and wildlife reserves to Ugandans free of charge as part of efforts to encourage domestic tourism.
UWA Commissioner for Tourism and Business, Dorcus Twesigomwe Rukundo, said the free access programme, dubbed #OpenParkDays, will run from September 25 to 27 and cover Queen Elizabeth, Murchison Falls, Lake Mburo and Kidepo Valley national parks.
Selected wildlife reserves, including Pian Upe, Toro-Semliki, Katonga and Ajai, will also be open to the public during the three-day campaign.
Rukundo said the initiative is intended to give more Ugandans an opportunity to experience the country’s wildlife and conservation areas, with Ajai Wildlife Reserve offering a particularly rare attraction following the recent relocation of rhinos there.
“It is an opportunity for Ugandans to see rhinos in the wild,” she said.
She also urged Ugandans visiting Mbale to explore the city’s new satellite zoo, where UWA has relocated lions, zebras and ostriches as part of efforts to bring wildlife education and conservation closer to communities.
“Please come and see what Mbale can offer,” Rukundo said.
The satellite facility is part of UWA’s wider plan to decentralise conservation education, with similar facilities expected to be established in other parts of the country.
The national World Tourism Day celebrations will be held under the theme “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism,” highlighting the growing influence of technology on how tourists discover destinations, make bookings, access services and share their experiences.
President Yoweri Museveni is expected to attend the September 27 celebrations, which will bring together government officials, tourism operators, local leaders, cultural stakeholders and members of the public.
The decision to host the national event in Mbale is part of a broader government effort to promote tourism beyond Uganda’s traditional focus on wildlife and national parks.
Uganda Tourism Board Chief Executive Officer Juliana Kagwa said the move is intended to decentralise tourism promotion and give regions an opportunity to showcase attractions that are often overlooked.
She said the eastern region has a rich combination of culture, heritage, coffee, traditions and natural attractions that can appeal to both domestic and international visitors.
“We are actually on a very serious and intentional journey of decentralising tourism from the usual traditional national parks, wildlife, Rift Valley, over-reliance on just landscape and wildlife,” Kagwa said.
“We’re now going into the culture, the heritage, the provenance of our people.”
Kagwa challenged tourism stakeholders in Mbale and the wider Mount Elgon region to take advantage of the celebrations to tell their own tourism story through both digital and traditional media.
She pointed to coffee, the Imbalu cultural tradition and other unique aspects of the region as tourism products that can be packaged and promoted to a wider audience.
“Is it the coffee? Is it the Mbalu? Is it everything about Mbale that makes you special? This is your time,” she said.
She added that UTB would work with the media to increase visibility for attractions in Mbale and surrounding areas, recalling Sipi Falls as one of the destinations she has previously highlighted for its tourism potential.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Doreen Katusiime, said Uganda must adapt its tourism industry to the changing behaviour of travellers, many of whom now rely heavily on digital platforms when choosing destinations.
“The modern traveller now increasingly discovers destinations online. They compare experiences. They make their bookings online. They pay digitally. They read reviews and they share experiences through social media and other digital platforms,” Katusiime said.
She said Uganda’s competitiveness would increasingly depend on how effectively the country presents its tourism products in the digital space.
“This means that our visibility in the digital space is now directly linked to our competitiveness as a destination,” she said.
Katusiime said artificial intelligence could provide tourism businesses with new opportunities to improve marketing, understand visitor preferences and deliver more personalised experiences.
However, she cautioned that the digital transition must be inclusive, particularly for small tourism businesses that may struggle to keep pace with technological changes.
“Our digital transformation must be inclusive, and no tourism businesses should be left behind,” she said.
She urged established tourism operators to share knowledge and mentor smaller businesses so that digital transformation benefits the wider tourism sector.
The push for greater use of technology comes as Uganda’s tourism industry continues to record growth.
According to Katusiime, Uganda received 739,815 international visitors between January and June 2026, representing a 3.7 per cent increase from the same period last year.
Tourism receipts increased by 25.6 per cent to approximately Shs2.3 trillion, while the average length of stay rose from 7.4 nights to 8.3 nights.
She said the figures demonstrate tourism’s growing contribution to Uganda’s economic transformation and the importance of strengthening the sector’s competitiveness.
Mbale City Mayor Joyce Kidulu Matuka welcomed the decision to host the national celebrations in the city, saying it would provide an opportunity to showcase the region’s attractions and raise its profile as a tourism destination.
She said the city had undergone visible improvements and urged stakeholders to use the event to attract more investment into tourism.
Matuka also called for greater development and promotion of attractions outside Uganda’s traditional tourism destinations, saying decentralising major events could help expose previously under-promoted areas.
“If we say we only host maybe these events in one particular place, we may not discover what other regions have,” she said.
She said Mbale City had begun preparations and appealed to national tourism agencies and other stakeholders to work together to ensure the celebrations deliver lasting benefits to the city and the wider eastern region.
“We need your support. We need to work together to make sure that this will be beautiful, celebrated, and all of us will benefit,” Matuka said.
The month-long campaign will promote Mbale, Mount Elgon and the wider eastern region while encouraging Ugandans to explore the country’s cultural, tourism and conservation attractions.
The celebrations will also feature entertainment and public activities, with musicians including Spice Diana, Fik Fameica, Ykee Benda and Suna Ben expected to perform. Renowned boxer and martial artist Moses Golola is also expected to take part.
The programme will culminate in Mbale City on September 27, bringing together tourism promotion, digital innovation, cultural heritage, wildlife conservation and entertainment as Uganda joins the rest of the world to mark World Tourism Day.
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