Over the last two decades, Rwanda’s tourism was in limbo! Today the leisure and adventure tourism has risen dramatically in Rwanda thanks to the many and varied tourism experiences on offer. Within East Africa, Rwanda is fast becoming a favourate destination! Tourism continues to remain at the top of the country’s foreign exchange earners and has retained a share of international business. Within 2013, the total revenue collected from the sector was US$293 million and it is expected to reach US$860 million by 2017.
Rwanda has geared up its marketing campaign and has utilized all possible opportunities to develop its tourism industry. The opportunities for Rwanda to grow its tourism offering are immense, from the well developed gorilla tourism to convention tourism involving hosting meetings and conferences. The country plans to increase its efforts in tapping into religious and cultural experiences, taking advantage of its eco and national parks and expanding water and leisure sports.
The country has also utilized the EAC Marketing Campaign to build on the broad recognition! Earlier in the year had The New Dawn Associates(NDA), in collaboration with other partners, RDB and Rwanda Air organized two Rwanda tours for travel agents, tour operators and selected media representatives to expose what Rwanda has to offer under the theme ‘Beyond the Gorillas’, giving a comprehensive view into the wide range of tourism attractions, along the shores of Lake Kivu, the Nyungwe Forest National Park, Enchanted Forest, birding areas and the cultural monuments like the King’s Palace in Nyanza, the National Museum in Huye and the newly opened up sites near Ruhengeri where the new kings were being introduced to what the kingship entailed.
Its efforts have yield benefits;
Rwanda is receiving as a top international travel destination. National Geographic Traveler recently selected Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest as one of the top 20 destinations in 2014 for its authentic, culturally rich, sustainable and superb nature in the world of travel today. This has put Rwanda among the list of the 10 top tourist destinations to watch in 2014.
Citing the country as Africa’s emerging safari favorite spot, Rwanda is the only African destination to be included on the list. G Adventures, an international tour operator, identified Rwanda as one of its five hottest destinations in 2014 for most of the British travelers. The program will differentiate Rwanda from neighboring destinations by informing EAC nationals, expatriates and international travelers about the country’s extensive nature and culture based tourism attractions.
Ultimately the program will result in increased visitation and tourism receipts for Rwanda. Apparently, Tourism is the nation’s largest foreign exchange earner, thus the investment in EAC promotion is important to secure future economic growth.
Well done to Rwanda for aiming at the regional market with renewed enthusiasm especially ahead of such a brilliant year of both reflective commemorations but also celebrations, and a year when the new Kigali Marriott hotel is opening up its doors.