Uganda has for long been described as the Pearl of Africa due to its spectacular nature and unique wildlife species that unfortunately still remain untapped. Several measures have been taken by government to effectively market the country’s tourism but it still remains a hidden gem and the Ministry of Tourism and Uganda Tourism Board were not long ago arraigned by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who pointed that they were not doing enough to promote Uganda’s diverse attractions. The question in everyone’s mind is “Can Celebrity visits and endorsements now help to boost Uganda tourism?

At the time when Uganda is associated with negative publicity due to the violent arrests of Opposition leaders and increased cases of insecurity, any positive news becomes a ray of hope for the tourism industry.

Much as few Ugandans were aware of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s visit to Uganda, their unnoticed visit is said to have a big impact on Uganda’s tourism. Their private visit with the Head of State at State House Entebbe mainly focused on how to market Uganda’s rich tourism potential. The American power couple arrived in Uganda on 12^th October 2018 to work on West’s new album-“Yandhi” and were staying at the luxurious Chobe Safari Lodge with a spectacular view of the mighty Nile River within the renowned Murchison Falls National Park. The American rapper who recently changed his name to “YE” set up a temporary music studio within the wilderness of this African Park for about 5 days to record his upcoming album. Reports have it that the rappers main reason of choosing Uganda over other African countries such as Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya is that he wanted to capture nature and the Pearl of Africa offers unsurpassed beauty and nature.

However, there was a notion that their trip was funded by the Government of Uganda under the pretense of promoting the country as a tourism destination and an exorbitant $10 (approximately Shillings 37 billions) was paid to have them visit the country but according to the Minister of Tourism-Prof Ephraim Kamuntu, it’s just a speculation but Kanye and Kim’s private visit to the country was rather a perfect celebrity endorsement for the country and the Head of State being the Chief marketer of the country would not let these two celebrities leave without at least engaging and encouraging them to promote the country’s tourism and art industries.

Given the fact that Kanye and his family have tasted and experienced the beauty of Uganda, the Government and Ministry of tourism hopes that they will continue marketing the country even after their 5-days’ vacation. If we have to go by his words, then a hospitality training school will be set up to boost the tourism industry. According to Prof Kamuntu, the couple’s visit has yielded results because he has personally received numerous calls from all over the World enquiring about Kanye West’s visits and further pointed that the endorsements of celebrities on social media especially twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook will help sell Uganda and its endless beauty to the entire World.

As of October 2018, Kim Kardashian is the 11^th most followed celebrity on twitter with over 59 million followers and is also one of the most popular celebrities on Snapchat, therefore after her post describing the beauty of Uganda, many of her followers will be curious and wish to know what actually attracted her and husband Kanye West to the small East African country. The Keeping Up With The Kardashians (KUWTK) star posted on Snapchat informing the World of how there is another Heaven in Uganda, highlighting the wonderful water bodies, verdant forests and bushes, primates and birds in addition to the beautiful people with real smiles. This undoubtedly is a way of marketing Uganda and people who watch KUWTK show will agree that the star together with her family members usually choose the best destinations for vacations, hence making such places even more popular.

However, there are two sides to a coin and much as their visit is believed to help boost Uganda tourism, it was also perceived to benefit the couple who to a larger extent portrayed themselves as being charitable on social media. They donated a pair of white yeezy sneakers to the President and several others to children in a Ugandan school when they visited the Head of State and the school respectively. Ugandans online mainly criticized their attitude at the school and disrespectful attire while visiting the Fountain of honor in the land-the President.

Surprisingly, Kanye             West and Kim Kardashian are not the only high-profile/International celebrities to visit the country but also French Montana was in Uganda in 2017 to record his single-unforgettable with the famous Ghetto Kids of Uganda much as his visit only brought out the slummy aspects and not the beauty of the country.

Conclusively, celebrity visits and endorsements are a cheaper way of marketing Uganda to the entire World because in such way, followers of such celebrities will want to discover the things that interested their stars. Even millions of dollars the country had invested in marketing cannot surpass an endorsement of a celebrity.