Ugandan Government increases Tourist visa fees from USD50 to USD100-Uganda Safari News

mountain-gorillas-ugandaThe government of Uganda has finally increased their traveler's visa fees from the old rate of USD50 to USD100.This has happen amidst confusion in all Uganda Consular's and Embassies who are still showing the old rate of USD50.00 on their websites and blogs. The visa fees increment was proposed in Uganda National Budget that was read last month June where the ministry of finance clearly said that this increase was beneficial for the country as it would generate more foreign exchange and income from the visitors on Uganda safaris.
Uganda has followed her neighboring sister country Kenya who were the first to increase their visa fees to USD50 and are about to request all travelers interested in under taking safaris tours to Kenya to start applying by offering all details online in order to check who be offered or denied visa. It should be noted that all these countries are coping from Rwanda because it was the first country in east African Community to start online visa registration. It’s not yet certain whether Uganda will also start requesting for visitors to do online visa request.
The concern tourism stakeholders in Uganda have showed their dissatisfaction and are very shocked by this drive since they believe that increasing visa fees will automatically make Uganda an expensive Safari destination compared to other neighboring East Africa tourism destinations. With the dollar rate increasing on daily basis, the introduction of VAT on all Uganda safari lodges has instead made Uganda bit expensive  in comparison to other East African countries. To counter act this, the government through ministry of finance says that it will increase tourism budget from the former 16 billion to 30 billion to fund marketing, product development as well as infrastructure development in the next financial year. As per now, travelers can now apply for their visa at any Uganda Embassies or consular's in their countries or can get them upon arrival at Entebbe International Airport after paying USD100 to immigrations.
Uganda is gifted with various tourist attractions which range from mountain gorillas, chimpanzees, River Nile, golden monkeys, stunning Mountains, hospitable people but it seems like poor government policies which do not favor tourism sector will always affect the development of tourism yet the government needs more visitors to undertake safaris to Uganda in order to increase the flow of the dollars into the economy. If any new developments come, we will let you know but at the moment, that stands as it is.
Uganda Safaris/Uganda Safari News
Prime Uganda Safaris and Tours Ltd

Comments

  1. peteralvin31 March 2016 at 02:21

    Uganda is such a great country to visit if natural scenery and wildlife goes. If only the government could enable online application for their visas as it is with other countries like Vietnam, it would feel awesome and much easy to gain access to this country as a tourist.

    http://www.visa-vietnam.org
    http://www.vietnamvisa.fr

    ReplyDelete

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