The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) is on a quest to secure more Meetings, Incentives, Conference and Events (MICE) business from key source markets, including South Africa, in 2023 and beyond. Anthony Ochieng, UTB Market Development Representative, Africa, said there were already a good number of hotel meeting spaces in Uganda, with many exciting projects on the horizon.A delegation of tourism partners was on its way to South Africa in late February for Meetings Africa. A roadshow for the travel trade was also in the works, according to Ochieng.He said Uganda was still primarily thought of as a leisure destination, but that the tourism board and other stakeholders wanted it to diversify. There was already plenty of international and regional MICE traffic coming into places like Kenya, Ochieng added. The Uganda Convention Bureau will also be represented at Meetings Africa, in B2B meetings, at South African Tourism’s Indaba, at World Travel Market Africa and many other activations. For the MICE market, road infrastructure and domestic airline services inside Uganda are good, and there are a number of international airlines that operate direct flights into Kampala.“Uganda has stable power, the WiFi is good, there is security, Ugandans are friendly people, we have social amenities and many international bank brands,” said Ochieng. More hotel projects are being developed in Kampala as well as in Entebbe, a peninsula town on Lake Victoria. A convention centre would hopefully be added soon, Ochieng added.According to the tourism authority, Uganda recorded 800 000 visits by foreigners regarded as tourists last year. Pre-COVID, the destination welcomed between 1.2m and 1.5m visitors each year.Kenya, the US and Europe are its leading source markets. In Africa, the majority of visitors originate from Kenya, South Business travelUganda gets serious about MICEThe Pearl of Africa Hotel in Kampala. Photo: Pearl of Africa HotelAfrica, Nigeria and Ethiopia.Popular activities for leisure visitors, which MICE planners can add to impress delegates, range from a visit to the source of the Nile and gorilla trekking. Uganda has also enjoyed growth in faith-based tourism and culinary tourism.