Africa Hub HUB AFR

Regional Context

Our Africa Hub (HUB AFR) brings together two complementary Ugandan universities: Makerere University Business School (MUBS) in Kampala — the capital — and Mountains of the Moon University (MMU) in Fort Portal, a rural city at the gateway to Uganda’s national parks. This deliberate pairing bridges urban and rural tourism contexts, combining MUBS’s business-oriented perspective with MMU’s proximity to wildlife and nature tourism.

Uganda’s tourism sector employs around 1.6 million people, 68% of whom are women. Yet with youth unemployment above 70%, the country urgently needs better-trained hospitality professionals aligned with international standards. As tourism grows, concerns mount over environmental degradation, cultural preservation, wildlife conservation, and equitable benefit distribution for local communities.

The hub aims to address these challenges through practice-oriented education grounded in the realities of East African tourism.

Focus Areas

Ecotourism, Wildlife Conservation, Sustainable Gastronomy, Community Involvement

Looking Ahead

The Africa Hub is working toward a future where graduates from Uganda become change agents in East African tourism — professionals who can protect wildlife habitats, preserve cultural heritage, and ensure local communities benefit from tourism growth.

Building on VIVES’s collaboration with MMU since 2017 — which helped establish and accredit MMU’s Bachelor of Tourism and Hospitality Management, with the first graduates now working in the sector — we are expanding this foundation into a multi-institutional hub that will train the next generation of sustainable tourism leaders across the region.