Starting a tourism business in Uganda
Find out what it takes to start a tourism business in Uganda and what tourism business you can grip on to start and invest in. Our expert guidance and advice on how you can invest in one of the fastest-growing tourism businesses and make a fortune. Tourism as an industry has a number of business sections that you will decide on which to invest in and start as a business.
Deciding on what section you are looking forward to while starting a tourism business in Uganda is critical for your growth and focus. See a number of tourism businesses that you can start and invest in Uganda.
1. Tour Operation/Tour Company
This is one of the greatest tourism businesses in Uganda that many have opted to start and run. Tour operations involve selling tour packages to tourists seeking to go around the country to experience various tourist experiences and facilities following a specified journey plan. As you plan to start this tourism business in Uganda, prepare your website well, this is your online shop to enable you to grow and tap into the wider market. Find out what it takes to run a successful tour operation business in Uganda.
2. Car rental & Hire Rental Company
This is another section of the wider tourism industry that one can plan to start and invest in as a tourism business in Uganda. This involves offering tourists/visitors transport services in connecting from one attraction/destination to the other. You can as well extend the same services to tour companies or operators who come to you for safari vehicles or vans for hire and this is a lucrative business for many determined people. Starting this business will require you to secure all forms of cars (Small and big 4WD vehicles), keeping them road worth, clean, and nice looking all the time. Tourists require vehicles that are well looked after. You need proper business organization skills to manage your fleet and professional driver guides that will ensure your vehicles are in good shape all the time to tap into the readily available market.
3. Tourist accommodation facility
Tourists’ accommodation facilities include hotels, guesthouses, Inns, hostels, rental houses, safari lodges, and resorts. They provide overnight stay services to tourists or visitors in a given destination, they could be located in towns, remote places such as National parks and at various attraction points including Lakes and Rivers. While starting this tourism business, you must do enough research on visitors’ accessibility on how they can come and access your property or facility. You need to have enough funds to get your setup property comes to complete following the set tourist standards and ensure visitors will find it appealing to stay comfortably. A good number of lodges in National parks of Uganda have been set up and take a look at Chobe Safari Lodge in Murchison falls owned by Marasa group of companies.
4. Restaurants
Starting a tourism business in Uganda, especially a restaurant is easy with expert guidance. These include town restaurants that visitors in and around towns can use for special meals like local dishes or plan to start highway restaurants where guests can stop for a meal amid a long journey. Most of you are familiar with Agip motel restaurant in Mbarara and now the famous Igongo country restaurant along that highway where tourists stop for a lunch break on their way to Bwindi Forest National Park. Be organized with a good team to work with including very professional chefs, barmen, waiters, and waitresses, the market is readily available.
A lot leaves to be desired, meaning tourism has a lot of business that you can target not forgetting craft and souvenir shops, ticketing agencies, entertainment theaters, domestic flight services, and charter and helicopter flight services among others. But as you plan to start any of the businesses highlighted, make sure you have a well-written business plan, good marketing strategies, carry out enough research, understand the financial costs and have a budget for about 2 years to enable you to run without thinking much on profits and fulfill all required government business permits and licenses.
