Lilly Ajarova

Lilly Ajarova (born in 1970) is a Ugandan conservationist and tourism expert. She currently serves as the Senior Presidential Advisor on Tourism in Uganda. Previously, she was the chief executive officer of the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), the Ugandan government agency charged with promoting the country as a tourism destination, from January 2019 to March 2025. She was appointed to the UTB position on 10 January 2019. Quotes We need to enhance our integration in the developments and promotion of destination East Africa as one. Lilly Ajarova: Lets us open our borders, promote East Africa tourism The tourism sector in Uganda is growing. There is a lot of opportunity for growth in the sector. Uganda has a lot to offer in terms of different attractions and services that could bring the global community to visit here. We have a lot of natural endowment in the wildlife, the dramatic landscapes, the unique features like the equator, the source of the Nile. We have very good weather averaging 23C throughout the year which is perfect weather any time of the year. Even when it rains, in an hour’s time, it will be bright and shiny and all very nice. There is quite a lot to experience here about the history of Uganda. We have the architecture, the food, the people. Ugandans are a very warm people and very hospitable. We have a very diverse culture with 65 different tribes. *Every part of Uganda that you go through, you will experience different cultures, the way of life of the people from the food to their dressing to their dancing and singing. Uganda has positioned itself as a cultural destination, as a wildlife safari destination, and as a historical destination. Uganda is the diversity that we have as a destination and that provides a huge opportunity for development and growth in the tourism sector. The tourism sector in Uganda is one sector that is well positioned to transform the economy of Uganda from a developing country to a developed country. Some of the challenges that we have had historically are political issues. We are grateful that for over 30 years now we have had political stability. It is safe to be in Uganda at any time of the day. We have the challenge of investment into the tourism sector, specifically. There is work that we are doing now to provide the incentive to bring in as many investors into the tourism sector in Uganda as possible. We have some infrastructure in place in terms of hotels. We require more if we are going to attract more numbers into the country while meeting the needs of the different market segments. We still need more investment to make the tourism sector in Uganda perform to its best. The other challenge is to get Ugandans themselves to appreciate what we have to be able to share this with the world. Ugandans need to appreciate the resources available, the opportunity of investing in tourism in Uganda. Being part of what tourism is in Uganda, they need to experience the heritage that they have as citizens of this country. This is another responsibility that we are taking on right now as a challenge that we need to overcome. We need to get all Ugandans to appreciate and understand tourism as a sector and be part of it. We always say in Uganda that tourism is for everyone, so we need to bring that to reality. We are in our second wave but we also have the experience that we learned from the first wave of handling COVID in Uganda in 2020. We went into our first lockdown in March 2020 and that lasted for about two and a half months. The airport was closed and everything was shut down. We only opened the borders in October 2020. We came to a standstill for those several months of the year. By the end of the year, business started picking up and we got into the second wave in May this year. That has hit us very hard. The difference is that we are not completely shut down. *The borders are open, international tourists are allowed to come to Uganda under some strict operational procedures. Everyone coming in has to have their PCR test report to present. They need to be retested at the airport before they get to move out of the airport environment in Entebbe. Some of the flights have been canceled which is affecting the numbers that are coming in. I prefer to look at the positive side of it, the fact that we are managing these waves differently from the first one based on the lessons that we learned. We have organized ourselves to have the bubble tours. The tourists are coming in and there is a restriction on what vehicles they get in, the tour guides who have to go with them, the drivers must have their 48 hours PCR test before they go with any visitors. The hotels have strict standard operating procedures that they are following. One waiter has to deal with one client or one group of clients for the whole time in the hotel and they have to use the same tables so that there is not too much mixing of people to provide for more safety for everyone. It is hard and it is challenging, but the fact that we can have a few people come in is the main thing showing that we can still allow international tourists into this country. There are a lot of investment opportunities in tourism in Uganda. One of them, is the accommodation facilities. We require a lot more luxury accommodation facilities in the different parts of the country. Tourism Sector in Uganda: An Interview with Lilly Ajarova of Uganda Tourism Board External links Category:living people Category:21st-century Ugandan businesswomen Category:Women chief executives from Uganda