Uganda’s annual Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo ,POATE 2020 opened on February 4, 2020 in Kampala at the Speke Resort & Conference Centre in Munyonyo, on the shores of Lake Victoria.
POATE 2020 seeks to integrate a business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) trade event format under the theme “Inspiring high value engagement to promote intra-Africa travel for leisure, business and adventure”, aimed at raising Uganda’s profile as a preferred destination in the region and internationally.
The event has attracted over 57 international hosted buyers, 140 domestic and regional tourism operators as well as international and domestic media. The Expo was officially declared opened by Rt. Hon. Gen (Rtd.) Moses Ali the First Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Leader of Government Business in Parliament, on behalf of Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
In a speech read for him by Rt. Hon. Moses Ali, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni thanked the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) for organizing the Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo, saying that it would go a long way in “expanding business opportunities in the tourism sector in Uganda and the entire East African region.”
President Museveni told delegates to the expo that Uganda had significantly invested in creating “peace and stability, good road networks, enough electricity supply, better telecommunications networks and internet” and these investments would enable Uganda’s tourism sector to be competitive.
In his speech, the President of the Africa Tourism Board (ATB) and
the Seychelles former Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine, Alain St.
Ange, lauded Uganda for creating peace and stability, while
challenging the African continent to rise up and tell its own positive story.
“Uganda has something that few countries in
Africa can talk about – stability, safety,” he noted, emphasizing that such
positive stories need to be told about Africa.
The Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo is an annual tourism event in the East African region organized by the Uganda Tourism Board. It brings together travel agents, tour operators,
Hoteliers, destination managers and other service providers in the tourism business.
