Uganda is looking at capitalising the upcoming Martyr’s Day celebrations to increase tourists’ numbers in the country.
The Uganda Martyrs is one of the country’s flagship faith-based tourism products with a historical story of sacrifice, love for faith and Kingship.
The story culminates into what is now the annual Martyrs Day celebrations held on every June 3.
This year’s celebration comes two years later after Covid-19 pandemic entry in 2020 that stopped the annual celebrations.
Over the centuries, followers of different sects have made pilgrimages to Uganda’s religious sites.
Anglicans and Catholics trek from different parts of the country and the region on every June 3 to follow the footsteps of the Uganda martyrs, commemorating and emulating their profound faith.
Pilgrims feel like if they do so, they will get an opportunity to reach the Namugongo Martyrs Shrine site and a sense of cleansing and remarkable blessing will be upon them.
Unlike wildlife tourism, which comprises visiting national parks, with religious tourism, pilgrims are determined and cannot easily be deterred from their purpose.
The Namugongo martyrs’ shrine is one of the sites for religious tourism in Uganda, which attracts people of all walks of life in the world to learn and pay tribute to the martyrs who were killed by Kabaka Muwanga of Uganda.
For the past years, the biggest numbers of pilgrims have come from Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Nigeria, Malawi and Democratic Republic of Congo. This is according to Episcopal Catholic Secretariat statistics.
According to Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) Chief Executive Officer Ms Lily Ajarova, this gathering of millions of people contributes to Uganda’s economic development in form of the ripple effect across the transport, accommodation, food and recreation sectors.
This it said invariably, improves incomes and local standards of living of communities in these locations especially in the surrounding communities around Namungongo.
‘‘The Uganda Martyrs is an emotional and memorable symbolic product which has presented job opportunities in the developing and sale of memorabilia, artifacts, mementos and souvenirs among women, youth and people with disabilities. This has in turn resulted into colossal amounts of foreign exchange,’’ said Lily.
The pilgrimage has no seasonality, unlike other leisure pursuits like skiing, which is dependent on snow levels, swimming or deep-sea diving on warm weather patterns among others.
‘‘The product has helped Uganda to bridge the gap that has emerged because of the heavy concentration and reliance of tourism and visitor numbers to mostly conservation and wild-life-endowed areas of the country,’’Lily added.
The Uganda Martyrs as a faith-based tourism product, has emerged as one of few tourism products with more repeat visits than many other tourism products.
‘‘It is emotional and elicits more visits than many products on travel bucket lists because the pilgrims are determined and cannot easily be deterred from their purpose. Additionally, the pilgrimage changes the scenery all through the whole journey allowing pilgrims to enjoy and appreciate their country. This therefore has presented Uganda Martyrs as a vast potential for tourism business in Uganda,’’ Lily further elaborated.
There has been an increase of 4,888 foreign pilgrims in 2019 from 2,385 in 2017 according to the Episcopal Council Statistics.
According to the information from the Episcopal Council, 2019 Uganda received pilgrims from 14 foreign countries that attended the martyr’s day celebration.
Kenya registered the highest number of foreign pilgrims followed by Tanzania. In one week, UTB recorded an increase of visitor pilgrim numbers rising from one million in 2014 to four million in 2019, most of them comprising local Ugandans.
To make the celebration successful and bring in more tourists, UTB has plans to offer financial assistance to the Anglican and Catholic churches to support the organization and planning of the celebrations.
‘‘We also intend to do digital activations on UTB’s Explore digital pages and print advertisements in the nation’s mainstream newspapers and in Uganda Martyrs Magazine,’’ she said.
