ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to contribute to the literature on youth employment and entrepreneurship by focusing on the nature of youth participation in the tourism industry in Kampala, Uganda's capital city. It then examines how and why young people engage in the sector and their aspirations for the future. The chapter also highlights how interconnected the formal and informal sectors are. Many young people become entrepreneurs initially by working in the formal sector in order to obtain the necessary start-up capital, build up their social networks, acquire skills, and gain good ideas for new businesses. The tourism industry, despite its high staff turnover, provides young people with much-needed experience on which to draw when running their enterprises. Informal micro-enterprises, many of which are run by young people, provide the hotels and lodging subsector with supplies and services.
