{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.
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