The prolonged campaign to attract more tourists to Rwanda has paid off following the recent announcement by the Ministry of commerce that tourism sector earned the country US$251 million in 2011 representing a 25.5% over the total exports score of 31.7%.
However, similar efforts need to be injected locally to stimulate interest in local or domestic tourism. Being a small country, it makes it very affordable for citizens to access all touristic zones in the country.
Planners need to segment the market especially by grouping people in terms of their travel behaviour, media consumption habits and lifestyle, providing a more in-depth knowledge and understanding of who they want to appeal to.
In every segment there is an opportunity to unlock the value and stimulate growth. By understanding the needs of each segment Rwanda tourism authorities and the travel industry will be able to provide information, new products (affordable to the various segments) and relevant communication to instil a greater culture of holiday travel.
It was very clear in the recently concluded x-Mass holidays there was minimal domestic holiday travel. Upcountry hotel owners, national parks,Cultural centers, handlers,entertainment, beverage, telecommunication and other corporate institutions ought to team up to impress upon citizens to embrace domestic tourism.
Government through the line ministries should scale up status of model upcountry towns into cities in every province with nearly all facilities and services only accessible in the capital. This would too promote rapid internal travel thus encouraging domestic tourism.
Rwanda domestic tourism should be branded to be seen and heard more than it is currently. It’s important to purposely create a holiday culture amongst citizens and to make travel ‘sexy and exciting’.
In related efforts, government ought to seize the opportunity and tap into the Rwandan Diaspora as a potential investment force due to the existing trust through patriotism and firsthand knowledge of the country’s investment opportunities viewed differently by foreign investors.
There are advantages of investment via capital markets. Capital market investment provides Diasporas to invest in their country of origin, Rwanda through a more liquid mechanism with greater spill over benefits to the local economy.
However, the government needs to work on relaxing the legal and technical barriers existing to the cross-border movement of capital and assets.
Financial institutions and other private-sector actors should pay attention to designing savings accounts and other banking products tailored to the needs and preferences of transnational families.
The government should provide more information to the Diaspora to scale up their knowledge about investment opportunities and business practices in Rwanda making them more open to investments that other international investors perceive as too risky owing to the post conflict and natural-resource-poor status of our country.
To attract and facilitate Diaspora Direct Investment (DDI), a number of institutional reforms must be adopted. Most examples of foreign investment promotion in developing countries are based on encouraging investment from multinational corporations.
First, there must be equal treatment for DDI and FDI. In reality, DDI, which has far more potential for economic growth and national development, is discriminated against in favour of FDI.
Researchers argue that Africa has a huge potential for DDI certainly even if regional cases of success are not as pronounced as in other regions of the world.
A large number of Diaspora is willing to contribute to the development of their country of origin however a large segment that isn’t interested cites political leadership at home. This means our government should take seriously such political concerns identified by the Diaspora and make reforms.
A very large part of agricultural production undergoes some degree of transformation between harvesting and final use.
The Government should encourage investment into agro processing through provision of various incentives to investors in this sector. This will transform the Agro processing industry thus means transforming products originating from agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
Telecommunication and Transport sector remains underdeveloped in Rwanda as compared to other member states of the East African community. Despite the country being small, the cost of transporting goods and services within the country is still high.
The cost of transporting goods from neighbouring countries is also very high. In effect the high transport costs have affected the lifespan of businesses.
Addressing and considering domestic tourism promotion, Diaspora Direct Investment, Investment in agro processing and improvement of the transport sector will catapult Rwanda’s economic progress in 2012.
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