Category: Tourism

{Last week-end, Rwanda’s Prime Minister, Dr. Pierre Damien Habumuremyi together with his wife have visited the source of the Nile, which is located in Nyungwe Forest in Gisovu Sector. The couple visited the area, a day after Rwandans and the wider world celebrated Valentine’s Day.}

Habumuremyi wrote on his tweeter account that he “just reached the furthest source of Nile in Nyungwe National Park as it has confirmed by Neil Gregor, Cam Leay, Garth Intyre in 2006”

He urged Rwandans and leaders to discover tea tour for excellence, chimpanzee, the furthest source of Nile and much more at Gisovu in Rwanda.

On Valentine’s Day, the Premier took time and wishes a” Happy Valentine’s Day to all, as we keep our mission of working hard and change our country into a developed nation-state.”

Rwanda Development Board, in partnership with Solimar International, a Washington DC-based tourism development and marketing firm, are in a campaign to promote Rwanda’s tourism potential.

According to RDB, the US company brings an extensive international expertise and vast experience working in East Africa to boost the country’s top foreign exchange earner.

The New Times reported that the 18 months campaign which is geared towards promoting Rwanda amongst the East African Community (EAC) states will focus on distinguishing the country from neighbouring destinations by informing EAC nationals, expatriates and international travellers about the country’s extensive nature and culture-based tourism attractions.

Effective New Year’s Day, tourists visiting the East African countries of Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda use a single visa to tour areas of interest within the specified nations.

The $100 (about Rwf67,500) visa valid for 90 days is paid at the point of entry or in foreign missions and each state will take a share of $30.

However, the country that processes the visa entry will receive an extra $10 in administration costs.

“This is a prime opportunity for Rwanda that comes after the launch of the East African single joint visa and the broad global recognition of Rwanda’s exceptional nature, culture, and adventure experiences in publications like National Geographic Traveller and Conde Naste Traveller,” David C. Brown, the director of marketing and communication at Solimar International, told The New Times via e-mail on Tuesday.

Brown, who heads the campaign, said the drive will increase the flow of tourists coming to Rwanda from other EAC countries.

“We will work with RDB and members of the regional and international tourism industry, including tour operators, travel agents, airlines, and transportation providers to better understand Rwanda’s tourism offer and how they can sell it to their clientele. We will be speaking directly to EAC tourism consumers through social and traditional media,” he said.

The campaign is designed to be an important component of reaching the RDB’s target of a 10 per cent increase in EAC arrivals within two years, says RDB.

During the 18-month drive, RDB and Solimar International will apply various activities to showcase Rwanda’s tourism industry to the world, including the use of maps, photos, videos, mobile apps, and an online destination specialist course that provides detailed information on travel logistics and tourism attractions.

{Rwanda is well known for its mountain gorillas. First brought to international attention by the Conservation efforts of Dian Fossey in the 1960s and 70s, Rwanda’s gorillas have featured in numerous documentaries and have in the recent past been visited, for example, by Bill Gates, Natalie Portman and Ted Turner, who have all participated in the annual gorilla naming ceremony. }

Rwanda and Uganda are the only two countries in the world where mountain gorillas can be visited safely at the moment. In 2008, about 17,000 people visited the Volcanoes National Park (VNP) to see the Gorillas, a large increase from the late 1980s and an impressive recovery from only 417 tourists in 1999 after the re-opening of the park.

Rwanda has also seen gorilla tourism as a valuable conservation tool, enforcing strict rules for the habituation and trekking of gorilla families. Tourists are willing to pay high
Fees for a limited number of permits, which are usually sold out.

The revenues from gorilla tourism provide funds to the national parks and facilitate conservation activities. Five percent of park revenues are disbursed for community projects. Rwanda is, however, also known for its violent past, which has dominated the image of the country for several years.

The international perception of Rwanda, however, has changed and at present the country is considered one of the safest destinations in the region. This image change goes hand in hand with the marketing of the country and, in particular, the mountain gorillas.

The revival of gorilla tourism demonstrates that with the right strategy and instruments, a post-conflict country can successfully focus on high-end tourism while maintaining conservation and contributing to poverty reduction through the involvement of communities as priorities.

There is, however, more to tourism in Rwanda than gorillas. Besides the VNP, Rwanda has two other National parks that offer, for example, a range of wildlife and biodiversity.

Furthermore, the country has been particularly successful in attracting large numbers of business and conference travelers, mainly from the DRC as well as the neighboring countries of the East African Community (EAC).

This is evidenced by the large increase in the number of hotel rooms and restaurants as well as the Planned construction of a convention center. Local and foreign direct investments have been substantial.

In terms of export revenue, tourism has already out performed coffee and tea by a wide margin.

There are several aspects that have contributed to the successful revival of the tourism sector in Rwanda. First and foremost, the government has shown a clear commitment to the development of the tourism sector and has established itself as a safe destination in the region.

The early development of a strategy and policy demonstrated this commitment. Furthermore, the government involved the private sector from the start and has implemented a good strategy to market Rwanda as a destination.

The business environment has improved markedly, promoting private sector involvement.

In addition, Rwanda has always seen tourism as an instrument to reduce poverty, for example by directly involving local communities.

The next section gives an overview of gorilla tourism in Rwanda, the factors contributing to its success and its benefits. Section 3 outlines the development of the overall tourism sector and its contribution to the economy. Section 4 discusses the remaining challenges and emerging possibilities.

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The roots and rise of gorilla tourism in Rwanda}

The Virunga mountain gorilla is a highly endangered African ape subspecies, with a total estimated population of 380 existing only in the Virunga Conservation Area encompassing Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

The distribution of the Virunga mountain gorillas is limited to an approximate area of 447 km, which encompasses the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda, the Parc National des Volcans (Volcanoes National Park – VNP) of Rwanda and the Mikeno sector of the Parc National des Virunga of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Gray et al., 2005).

The VNP consists of about 160 kmof montane forest which, until Rwanda’s independence in 1962, was part of Africa’s first national park (the Parc National Albert).

This was created in 1925 with an intention of protecting the great apes (ORTPN, 2004).

Tours have been organized to view wild mountain gorilla groups since 1955 (Butynaski and Kalina, 1997) with the first attempts at habituation for this purpose occurring as early as 1966 (Murnyak, 1981).

These early tourism programs displayed an almost complete lack of structure and control. Focus tended to be on revenue rather than conservation and there are many anecdotal reports of large groups of tourists visiting groups of non- or semi- habituated gorillas (Fawcett et al., 2004).

In 1979, the Virunga’s first official mountain gorilla tourism program was launched by Bill Webber and Amy Vedder, under funding through the African Wildlife Foundation, World Wide Fund for Nature and Fauna and Flora International (Pers. Com. Bush, 2010).

It was one part of the three-focus approach of the Mountain Gorilla Project, which also encompassed anti-poaching and education programs.

This was done for the dual purpose of providing the Rwandan government and park authorities an incentive to conserve the park and the animals within it from the threat of proposed conversion of 5000 hectares of park area for agricultural purposes; and 2) generating local employment and tourism.

This program has subsequently evolved into what is now the International Gorilla Conservation
Program, still organized as a coalition of the three agencies

.Two wild groups of gorillas were initially habituated for tourism visitation purposes, with strictly Enforced limits on the number of visitors and length of visits.

The combination of quality control and international interest in Dian Fossey’s highly publicized
Gorilla studies resulted in steadily increased visitation throughout the 1980s, peaking around 6,900 in 1989 (ORTPN, 2008b).

By the mid-1980’s, local attitudes toward and political support for conservation
Increased significantly as a direct result of this program (Weber, 1987).

Stimulated by the attraction of gorilla tourism, Rwanda received almost 22,000 visits to its three national parks in 1990, when military conflict brought tourism to a halt).
Understandably, gorilla tourism collapsed during the genocide, civil war and subsequent periods of insecurity between 1994 and 1998.

Fortunately today, tourism is concluded and ranked to be the best source of income to government of Rwanda.

Thank every Rwandan citizen who has contributed and supported to the emerging of the Tourism industry today.

{The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) is pleased to announce that “Kwita Izina” has been selected among the finalists for the UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Public Policy and Governance.}

In 2005, Rwanda’s tourist board introduced an annual public gorilla naming ceremony now known as Kwita Izina which comes from Rwandan baby naming tradition that entire community is involved in naming a newly born. The event is in line with the effort to create and raise awareness for the conservation of mountain gorillas, as a tool to distinctively position and promote Rwanda as a must-see tourism destination and empower communities surrounding Volcanoes National Park, mountains gorillas’ habitat.

Following the UNWTO call for nomination in June this year, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) submitted the application for the UNWTO Ulysses Awards for Innovation with the key project of KWITA IZINA on October 1st, 2013. After consideration, the UNWTO Awards Jury Committee recommended the KWITA IZINA Programme as one of the finalists in the category of UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Public Policy and Governance.

Other finalists in the same category are Interactive System of Tourist Information, Office of the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodeship (Poland) and Responsible Tourism Project at Kumarakom, Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala (India). The winner will be unveiled during the International Tourism Trade Fair – FITUR to take place on the 22nd of January 2014 in Madrid, Spain.

Commenting on the UNWTO announcement, Valentine Rugwabiza, RDB CEO said,
“We are delighted for the recognition of being finalists in innovative projects by UNTWO. This nomination is a global recognition of Rwanda‘s leadership in innovative, communities’ focused and sustainable tourism”.

As Rwanda is home to about one third of the Mountain gorillas only left in the world, 173 baby gorillas during Kwita Izina celebration have been named among others by the President of Rwanda and the First Lady, prominent personalities in tourism, ambassadors, international conservationists, Hollywood stars, renowned journalists and performing artists.

The Head of Tourism and Conservation at RDB, Rica Rwigamba recognised that it is good news as Rwanda gears up for the 10th Edition of Kwita Izina celebration.
“This recognition is a great opportunity to market Rwanda further in the tourism industry and specifically Kwita Izina as a flagship event that continues to attract thousands of people. I undoubtedly believe it will figure among the important dates of global conservation calendar” She Furth more added, “we are on the right track and can form the basis for continued positioning of our country as a high end destination that puts at its chore sustainable tourism development that integrates both biodiversity conservation and community development”.

Every year since 2003, the UNWTO Awards for Excellence and Innovation in Tourism have honoured tourism initiatives that contribute to advance tourism through knowledge and innovation, in line with the principles of the UNWTO Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Since its inception in 2005, Kwita Izina has evolved from a one day celebration to a week celebration. Along with the main gorilla-naming ceremony, a number of exciting events take place during the week preceding the naming ceremony among which emphasis in conservation and community welfare based. From 2005, an amount of 586,838,751 Rwf (978,065 US$) from RDB’s Tourism Revenue Sharing Scheme was allocated to community development.

{{The East African region is set to attract an increasing number of tourists following proposals to have a joint tourist visa.}}

President Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenya is working with its neighbours to come up with a single visa that will enable tourists to visit all the five East African Community member states.

“We are also working on a joint marketing strategy so that as we sell Kenya as a tourist destination, we will also be selling all the attractions that the region has to offer,” President Kenyatta said.

The President underscored the importance of tourism, saying it generates around 12pc of Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product and accounts for about 9pc of the country’s total formal employment.

He said his administration is focused on enhancing the country’s competitiveness in the sector to increase the number of tourists visiting Kenya every year.

“Specifically, we have committed to promote Kenya as a destination, rather than a stop-over, and to attract at least three million tourists annually,” he said.

President Kenyatta called for additional investment in hotel and other tourism-related infrastructure as the Government scales up interconnectivity through port, rail, and road infrastructure.

He singled out the ongoing expansion of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and the opening of the expanded Kisumu Airport as some of the initiatives to increase the country’s capacity to receive more visitors.

“Airstrips in our major safari destinations have also been refurbished. As a result, the tourists will soon be able to traverse Magical Kenya with ease and in a manner that enables them to optimize their safari experience,” he said.

He assured the Kenya tourism Board of increased budgetary allocation to enable it to promote a diversified range of domestic destinations.

President Kenyatta also said his administration has put in place measures to counter terrorism and other security threats.

He said the Government is vigilant and has embarked on heavy investment in security to ensure the safety of Kenyans and tourists.

“We are vigilant and are effectively countering all security threats to keep Kenya safe. We are investing heavily in our security to protect the whole country,” he said.

President Kenyatta said the Government will continue to mobilise international support to fight terrorism. He urged international partners to desist from issuing travel advisories which compounded the negative impact of terrorism.

To protect the country’s wildlife, the President said intensive lobbying is ongoing to stop the trade in poached animal products including ivory and rhino horns.

He said the illegal trade was decimating wildlife populations and compromising the region’s competitive advantage.

“We will complement this effort by increasing the capacity of the Kenya Wildlife Services to effectively curb poaching through intensified and focused investment in equipment, personnel and specialized intelligence,” he said.

The President spoke on Friday at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre when he opened the 3rd edition of the Magical Kenya Travel Expo.

More than 150 companies from all parts of the world were represented at the tourism exposition.

Speaking during the occasion, East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie said the expo was an important platform to promote the country’s tourism sector.

“It enables us to build partnerships that are instrumental to our growth as spelt out in our Vision 2030. It is both an exposition of opportunities and an interaction of possibilities for those who have attended,” Kandie said.

On his part, Kenya Tourism Board Managing Director Muriithi Ndegwa said the expo is meant to showcase Kenya as a tourism destination.

Ndegwa says over 100 tourism marketing companies from the world are in the country to sample tourism destinations in the country in bid to sell Kenya as a tourism destination to their clients.

He said the expo will also hold a seminar for the companies on various issues in the tourism sector.

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{{Nyungwe National Park has been making headlines over the last two years for good reasons.

As one of Africa’s largest protected mountain rainforest, Nyungwe is also amongst Africa oldest forests and cover more than 1000 km2 of rainforest, bamboo, grassland, swamps, and bogs. }}

During the last Ice Age, Nyungwe was one of the few places on the African continent that remained green according to scientists. It is believed that this is one of the reasons why this forest engorges a large variety of plants, animals and habitats that are not easy to find somewhere else.

Forests are vital to our well-being as they provide oxygen and are home to humans as well as to wildlife. However, our planet has been under deforestation threat over the last century at an alarming rate.

According to the World Wildlife ( WWF ), some 46-58 million square miles of forest are lost each year—equivalent to 36 football fields every minute. This sounds exaggerated but it is a fact we have at hands and that need to be addressed to mitigate climate change.

Deforestation is critical in tropical rainforests because they are home to much of the world’s biodiversity. Nyungwe National park is one of rainforests found in tropical areas and is home to a variety of ecosystem.

Luckily for Nyungwe, this rainforest is being taken care of to the point that there is more hope than worries in preserving its biodiversity. Located in the southwestern parts of Rwanda, Nyungwe became a national park in 2004 and has become one of tourist’s attractions in Rwanda.

As the land of thousands hills is transforming itself into an emerging tourist destination, a new project dubbed “ Nyungwe nziza” seeks to develop the tourism potentiality of this rainforest. In addition to this, the project aims to focus on inclusive tourism for the benefit of local communities surrounding the park.

This is a positive sign of this conservation effort as it takes into account communities surrounding the park. A failure to include them would have increased the number of poachers a move that would negatively impact of the success of this project.

All the efforts geared at conserving the biodiversity of this park are highly regarded locally as well as at the international level.

The Nyungwe Nziza project was last year named winner of the British Guild of Travel Writers’ top Globe Award, at the Guild’s prestigious annual awards dinner that took place at the Savoy Hotel in London.

Clare Akamanzi, the acting CEO of the Rwanda Development Board said that Nyungwe offers a combination of tourism, wildlife, environmental and agricultural development which add beauty as well as create jobs for the people.

A press release from British Guild of Travel Writers Secretariat stated that Nyungwe National Park, the Rwanda Development Board project was praised for harmonizing tourism, wildlife, environmental and agrarian development in one of Africa’s last surviving patches of primeval pre-Ice Age rainforests.

As if that was not enough, Nyungwe has recently been short-listed for the 2013 World Travel Awards. It was nominated alongside Kalahari Game Reserve (Botswana), Etosha National Park (Namibia), Kruger National Park (South Africa), Masai Mara National Reserve (Kenya), Serengeti National Park (Tanzania), and Kidepo National Park in Uganda.

Each year, World Travel Awards organize regional gala ceremonies to recognize conservation efforts . This year the African gala ceremony will take place in Nairobi on October 16th while the grand finale for all continents will be staged in Doha, Qatar in November 30.

This year authorities in Rwanda have decided to celebrate the 2013 World Tourism Day inside Nyungwe, an event that is organized under the theme “Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future”. This move reflects the important role Nyungwe National Park plays to mitigate climate change and protect a future that we all share.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged tourism establishments to cut consumption and improve waste management and called on individuals to play their part by making environmentally conscious choices when they travel.

Any effort to conserve this park is not only beneficial to Rwanda but also to the whole world because at the end of the day climate change concerns every nation. The reasons why Nyungwe National Park sweeps international prestigious awards every other year.