Uganda hosted 1,000 conferences in 2017
The update does not factor in conferences from August to December, suggesting the total figure for 2017 is higher. The report, however, does not indicate how many high-profile meetings and conferences took place for the period.
Usually high-end meetings like the Solidarity Summit on Refugees are fewer, suggesting most Ugandan meetings are local or regional.
In 2016, the Knight Frank Uganda update states that Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja, the most closely knit towns with the most number of hotels and other hospitality facilities, had 1,600 conferences, both local and international, attended by over 46,000 people.
A number of countries are now looking at meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions or MICE as one way of attracting visitors and generating much needed foreign exchange. This year, Rwanda, for example, set a target of 64 million dollars from MICE, up from 47 million dollars the previous year.
Rwanda's success is attributed to aggressive marketing, including of its tourism potential, and establishment of world-class properties like the Kigali International Convention centre, Marriot Hotel and Radisson Blu Hotel, to mention but a few.
The 2016 International Congress and Convention Association's statistics report mentions South Africa as the Number One in Africa, notching 125 high-end meetings.
Globally, the 2016 MICE report showed the United States of America holding the most number of high profile meetings, followed by Germany, United Kingdom, France and Spain.
