Kampala — Uganda’s tourism sector contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the financial year 2014/15 increased to Shs6.3b up from Shs5.6b the previous year. GDP is the total value of goods and services produced within a country annually.

The performance is captured in the annual tourism sector performance review released in Kampala recently.

The growth translates into 9.9 per cent contribution to GDP (Shs96.7 trillion), up from 7.9 peuganda mapr cent in 2013/14.

The new figure is as a result of an increase of visitors (1,266, 046) who came to Uganda in 2014 up from 1,206,334 in the previous year, which ministry of Tourism officials attribute to better marketing of the country and improvement in infrastructure, among others.

The sector’s contribution to the economy was Shs5.6 trillion (7.9 per cent of GDP) in 2013 and rose to Shs6.4 trillion (9.9 per cent of GDP) in 2014

Additionally, the sector contributed 592,500 jobs up from 551,100 in 2013.