{"id":49213,"date":"2023-11-03T12:19:11","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T12:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rwanda-praised-as-a-living-example-of-hope-success-and-strength-after-adversity\/"},"modified":"2023-11-08T14:05:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T14:05:13","slug":"rwanda-praised-as-a-living-example-of-hope-success-and-strength-after-adversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rwanda-praised-as-a-living-example-of-hope-success-and-strength-after-adversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda praised as a living example of hope, success and strength after adversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, the country \u201cvowed to not let the past define their future\u201d as it is now ranked the premium destination for world travel.<\/p>\n

Rwanda has become the first African country to host the prestigious 23rd Global summit of World Tourism and Travel Council (WTTC), which commenced on 1st November, 2023 and will end on 3rd, November, 2023. <\/p>\n

During the opening day, the president and CEO WTTC, Julia Simpson commended Rwanda\u2019s efforts to transformation and development.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen years ago, Rwanda didn\u2019t even rank in the top 150 countries with the ease of doing business; today, it’s in the top 20,\u201d she remarked.<\/p>\n

Simpson also commended Rwanda\u2019s efforts in conserving mountain gorillas that were on the verge of extinction due to poaching and deforestation.<\/p>\n

According to Simpson , the population of mountain gorillas around the world has grown from 200 in 1990\u2019s, to 1600 to date, thanks to Rwanda\u2019s implementation of a financial premium on the coexistence of the gorillas with man.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the CEO WTTC acknowledged Kagame\u2019s role in promoting gender equality in the country terming the president a \u2018man of his word\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere it’s not just talk, the Rwandan parliament has the largest percentage of women in the world,\u201d she exclaimed, stressing the role women play in the social and economic development of the country.<\/p>\n

The WTTC summit intends to develop the economy of the African continent by boosting the tourism and travel sector that, according to Simpson, has doubled in the past two decades, and has potential to thrive more in the next decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cEighty four million international visitors added 196 billion dollars to Africa’s bottom line, which is 7% of the continent’s economy. The focus in the next ten years is to grow the sector by 5.1% annually, twice as fast as the general economy,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

In agreement with the CEO\u2019s remarks, the WTTC chair , Arnold Donald, sent a sounding message to the world stating that \u201cthe heart of tourism is strongly in Africa\u201d after the continent\u2019s tourism investments \u201crose to a much stronger rate than the Global average,\u201d despite financial challenges and COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

For the past 33 years, WTTC has been a strong advocate for the positive impact tourism and travel has on the world. However, according to Simpson, the sector faces a major challenge of visa regimes especially in Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the right vision, tourism and travel could increase Africa\u2019s GDP by 50 billion dollars by 2033 and create 6 million more jobs,\u201d said Simpson.<\/p>\n

In his speech, president Paul Kagame announced that \u201cany African is free to get on a plane at anytime and come to Rwanda without paying anything\u201d emphasising the need to not forget the continental market.<\/p>\n

\"Simpson<\/figure>\n
\"The<\/figure>\n
\"Rwanda<\/figure>\n
\"President<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Nearly thirty years ago, Rwanda was looked upon by the rest of the world as a \u2018horror\u2019 destination, following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that took lives of over 1 million victims.} <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000060935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72,75],"byline":[3104],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-49213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","tag-homenews","byline-jane-babirye"],"bylines":[{"id":3104,"name":"Jane Babirye","slug":"jane-babirye","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":3104,"name":"Jane Babirye","slug":"jane-babirye","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000060935,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1514-cc31c.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1514-cc31c.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1514-cc31c.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1514-cc31c.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1514-cc31c.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1514-cc31c.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000060935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49213"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=49213"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=49213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}