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Uganda Tourism Board in massive restructuring
Mr Stephen Asimwe, the Uganda Tourism Board Chief Executive Officer said the recruitment is a result of the massive restructuring exercise the board sanctioned a few months ago. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Mr Amos Wekesa, the CEO of the Great Lakes Safaris, one of those who markets the country as a preferred tourism destination, on his own accord, called on the board to open up so that competent individuals can join the sector.
- He said the challenges of UTB in the past and right now are the same challenges many government agencies are facing and it’s because the country doesn’t seem to have a clear road map on where it should go economically like it’s with security.
The Uganda Tourism Board is in a massive recruitment drive to fill in what the management says are gaps needed to drive tourism to greater heights.
At least 26 vacancies have been advertised. Among them are; the Marketing Manager, Manager legal and corporate affairs, quality assurance manager, finance and planning manager and human resources and administration manager.
Also advertised are; senior internal auditor, senior public relations, procurement, and marketing officers, senior accountant, executive assistant to the CEO and legal office.
Others are product development and investment officer, marketing officers, planning officer, classification and registration officer, licensing and inspection officer, research, monitoring and evaluation officer, assistant accountant, administrative assistant, office assistant and drivers.
Mr Stephen Asimwe, the Uganda Tourism Board Chief Executive Officer said the recruitment is a result of the massive restructuring exercise the board sanctioned a few months ago. He said the first exercise started with internal recruitment that ended two weeks ago.
“We first did internal recruitments and those who qualified were absorbed and those who did not were asked to leave. The positions we have now advertised externally did not attract the best candidates internally, that’s why we had to advertise,” Mr Asimwe said.
Mr Asimwe added that the whole tourism sector in Uganda needs capacity building to remain competitive so that the country can remain one of the preferred global destinations, that’s why they are reorganizing the whole sector.
“Over the years, the sector has become the biggest source of foreign currency to the government and we need to keep it. Last year, we had about 1.4 million arrivals, bringing about USD1.4billion. This contributed about 10 percent of the GDP and we want to do better,” he continued.
Mr Asimwe said Uganda has become more visible globally and the recruitment of Public Relations companies in the Europe and US have helped to drive tourism arrivals much higher than what it has been.
The board has of recent times faced criticism, particularly from the tourism fraternity over incompetent staff who have failed to drive the sector forward.
Mr Amos Wekesa, the CEO of the Great Lakes Safaris, one of those who markets the country as a preferred tourism destination, on his own accord, called on the board to open up so that competent individuals can join the sector.
He said the challenges of UTB in the past and right now are the same challenges many government agencies are facing and it’s because the country doesn’t seem to have a clear road map on where it should go economically like it’s with security.
“A clear roadmap of where we want to go economically as a country would see us draw a clear strategy for sectors like tourism and with clear strategies, we would employ the right people with right attitude who would give clear performance contracts,” he said.
“I think UTB should simply allow all competent Ugandans out there to compete for all jobs in the organization and if they are employed and fail to produce results as well, they should be shown exit as well. Good marketing of Uganda would see many young people employed and more forex would flow in,” he said.
