By Ahmad Muto
Following the success of singer Eddy Kenzo’s Festival that took place over the weekend, tour service operator and businessman Amos Wekesa has implored the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) to borrow its blueprint and use it to sell Uganda abroad.
According to Wekesa, the execution was tiptop right from the streets to the concert venue, that was Kololo Independence Grounds.
“Been thinking about how @eddykenzofficial was marketed, it was everywhere! I think it was brilliantly done! From the pictures, loads of people attended and that meant opportunities for many businesses. Setting up the stage, I can imagine how many guys earned,” he tweeted.
Wekesa stated that because of the great marketing, the trickle-down effect was immense that so many on the supply chain got to mint money from the festival.
“I can imagine how many vendors benefitted from his festival! Now Uganda, as a country, needs the same energy when it comes to marketing so that food vendors, fuel stations, transporters, stopovers, shopping areas all benefit from that marketing.”
On that note, Wekesa challenged UTB to look for the team that the BET Award winner used to sell his festival, borrow their notes and use it to push Uganda as a destination.
“If I was UTB, for example, I would engage those involved in positioning @eddykenzofficial festival and replicate same energies! I would mobilise them to push Uganda’s image everywhere like they did for Kenzo! It was genius.”
With Ugandans in particular and Africans in general flying to Dubai for work and recreation, Wekesa noted that it only became possible because they aggressively marketed it as a destination, a potential Uganda has.
“That’s exactly what Dubai does; they tell you, you haven’t seen the world until you have been to Dubai. That’s how they make the money, that’s how they grow rich/ wealthy! We need to tell the world, you haven’t seen anything until you have been to Uganda. We have what it takes!”
It is worth noting that Kenzo was named Tourism ambassador by UTB in 2020 because of his surging popularity across the globe. It came two years after he was named tourism ambassador in Kenya by the Kenya Tourism Board for their Magical Kenya campaign.
