Uganda wants a bigger piece of the German tourism market — and it’s spending the week making the case directly to the people who book the trips.
The effort opened Tuesday with a tourism roadshow in Düsseldorf, organized by the Uganda Embassy in Berlin and the Uganda Tourism Board, where officials pitched gorilla trekking, safaris, and the country’s “Pearl of Africa” branding to German tour operators and travel agents. The target is modest but telling: Germany currently ranks fifth among Uganda’s overseas source markets, with roughly 14,200 visitors last year, and Ugandan officials are determined to push that number higher.
The roadshow is only the opening act. From Thursday through Saturday, the Embassy will host the first Uganda Cultural and Tourism Festival in Munich — a three-day showcase of music, dance, fashion, and cuisine that organizers describe as the most ambitious Ugandan public diplomacy event held in Germany to date. Beyond the entertainment, the festival doubles as a business and investment platform, with networking corners connecting Ugandan entrepreneurs and diaspora businesses to German counterparts. It will also feature the Miss Uganda Schengen 2026 pageant, which organizers bill as a vehicle for promoting Uganda’s tourism and coffee exports across Europe.
At the Düsseldorf event, Jessica Namuddu, Second Secretary at the Embassy, spoke on behalf of Ambassador Stephen Mubiru, framing tourism as central to the relationship between the two countries. “Tourism is not just an economic driver — it’s a bridge for cultural exchange and people-to-people connectivity,” she told attendees, according to organizers.
The Uganda Tourism Board sent senior marketing officials to make the pitch in person: Francis Nyende Hatinda, the Board’s Marketing Manager, briefed German operators on investment opportunities in the sector, while Commissioner for Tourism Development Vivian Lyazzi joined Board members and tour operators from both countries for a series of business-to-business meetings aimed at expanding Uganda-focused travel packages.
Officials from State House Uganda’s Diaspora Unit, led by Mohammed Bagonza, also attended — a reminder that Uganda is increasingly leaning on its diaspora in Germany to act as informal tourism ambassadors and trade conduits.
The timing is deliberate. The roadshow and festival follow Uganda’s high-profile presence at ITB Berlin in March — the world’s largest travel trade show — where the country made the same pitch to a far bigger audience. They also come ahead of 2027, when Uganda co-hosts the AFCON football tournament with Kenya and Tanzania, an event officials hope will put the country in front of millions of European television viewers.
Whether the push actually moves German visitor numbers remains to be seen. For now, though, Uganda’s tourism establishment is treating Germany — and the diaspora community living within it — as a market worth flying officials in to chase.
