uganda tour and safari news

Kigali - Rwanda’s tourism industry is perhaps one of the best indicators of how fast Rwanda has recovered from the years of political and economical mismanagement to a promising economy. From mere shambles in 1994, the industry has grown from nothing to more than 25,000 visitors annually.

A lot of the country’s national parks and hotels have undergone fundamental change and the dollars are coming in at a steady rate.

For Ms Rwigamba Rica, a director at the Office of Tourism Promotion and National Parks in Rwanda (ORTPN), this is just the beginning.

“We have a target in 2010 to have about 70,000 tourists who will be spending at least $100 million When you compare the figures that we have here, between January to July, we had more tourists than we had the whole of last year, that means that we would double the targets that we had given ourselves this year ie 25,000.

We have already reached 79 percent of that target, and we believe that by the end of the year we shall have gone past, that target,” she says.

But what makes tourism tick in Rwanda? Ms Rwigamba offers an explanation. “There is basically a lot on the menu. Rwanda is rich in flora and fauna and wild life. There is simply a lot to offer to tourists,” she says.

And this is what she means.

Rwanda is a land of great diversity and beauty. Popularly known as ‘the land of a thousand hills’, Rwanda has six volcanoes, 23 lakes and numerous rivers, some forming the source of the great River Nile. The landscapes in this green country are truly breathtaking.

Spectacular volcanoes and dense tropical forests dominate the north of the country, while gentle hills and valleys, calm lakes and turbulent rivers in both savannah and dense tropical vegetation dominate the rest of the country.

Rwanda boasts a wide variety of wildlife. The Parc National des Volcans, in northern Rwanda is home to the world’s largest number of endangered mountain gorillas.

Numbering in the hundreds, the gorillas live in a protected area, free from poachers. The gorillas can be viewed in their natural mountain habitat at a fairly close range. Best known for its wealth of primates, Rwanda also has one of Africa’s richest bird life. A staggering 670 different bird species have been recorded in Rwanda.

This includes the Rwenzori turaco, the secretive red-chested alethe, giant hornbills and the blue turaco.

For botanists, the gorgeous wildflowers of the forests and mountains are capped by more than 100 orchid species in Nyungwe alone.

The Akagera National Park in eastern Rwanda is teeming with wildlife both large and small. They range from Lions, Giraffes, Elephants and Hippopotamus to Hyenas, Impalas and Gazelles. There’s a rich variety of bird life at Akagera as well.

There is also a vast range of primates like Angola colobus monkey, an estimated 500 chimpanzees, L’Hoest’s monkey, silver monkey, vervet monkey, olive baboon, grey-cheeked mangabey and red-tailed monkey.

Rwanda is blessed with water bodies, which are ideal for water sports and fishing, particularly Lake Kivu in the west of the country and Lake Muhazi in the east. Lake Kivu also offers beautiful beaches, jutting peninsulas and an archipelago of beautiful islands.

Rwanda, in a nutshell, is a nature lover’s paradise. It is also one of the friendliest of countries. A warm welcome is complemented by comfortable facilities, fine food and a rich cultural heritage.

Gorilla Tracking

Dubbed ‘exciting and adventurous’ by those that have conquered the lushly forested slopes of the volcanoes which stand out in Parc National des Volcans (PNV), which form an appropriately dramatic natural setting for what is arguably the most poignant and memorable wildlife experience in the world, gorilla tracking is an exhilarating climb to the primate’s natural habitat of shady bamboo forest.

This offers fantastic views in all directions, before the trackers are immersed into the mysterious intimacy of the rainforest, alive with the calls of colourful birds and the chattering of the rare golden monkey.

The anxiety of encountering a fully-grown silverback gorilla, up to three times the size of an average man, yet remarkably peaceable and tolerant of human visitors is an experience worth reliving.

Trekking through thick forest as you weave through overhanging vines, moss covered Hagenia trees and giant Lobelias that thrive in the tropical climate of the forest Gorilla tracking in Rwanda is a memorable experience.

At the forefront of packaging these nature’s gifts into acceptable products to tourists is ORTPN and Rwigamba. They let us in on the massive reforms that had to be undertaken to turn around this otherwise lucrative trade that had gone to ruins.

“ORTPN was restructured in 2002, that’s when we got these two agencies (wild life agency and tourism agency); before that we had just one main agency. The wild life agency, is mostly in charge of national parks while the tourism agency is in charge of tourism promotion,” she says.

She adds that each of these agencies has different departments each of which is charged with different operations. “In the wildlife agency, we have the community conservation department which is a new department that didn’t exist, the tourism department specifically dealing with the national parks.

We have the law enforcement department which governs and protects the parks, the veterinary department, the research and monitoring department that goes with the fauna and flora in the national park,” she says.
She adds that the tourism and promotion department is charged with developing, marketing and distributing products outside the parks and public relations.

She says that following the successful restructuring process, improving the image and perception about Rwanda took priority.

“People out there were thinking of Rwanda as a genocide country. We were putting the message across that look, Rwanda had the unfortunate incident of genocide, but here we are, we are over it and we are ready to move on,” she says.

She adds that in a bid to promote domestic and international tourism, tourism as an industry and economic activity was re-launched both locally and internationally in 2003.

“That was the first thing we did for people to know that Rwanda is once again a stable country with unique tourist attractions. Since then, we have been going to different international fora, promoting Rwanda.

The figures we have achieved show that our work is not in vain; that actually what we have preached is indeed true. The visitors who have witnessed it all have acted as our ambassadors,” she says.

But these successes have not come on a silver platter. Rwigamba says that there is still a big challenge of completely turning the negative image about Rwanda, which is compounded by the instability in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

“We are working on it, it is a long process, ten years is not a very long time, to forget about what happened in Rwanda, That is the main challenge,” she says.

She adds that low investment in tourism attributed to high interest rates regime, poor infrastructure development, few airlines flying to Rwanda and capacity building have in one way or another affected the growth rates. “We are in a competitive environment, where we have neighbouring countries, that have already picked up. We really need to be, running rather than walking,” she says.

Tourism has not only been raking in millions of dollars and providing employment but also has done a lot in promoting the image of Rwanda. Tourism has also in a way played a role in reconciling Rwandans.

“In tourism we have also been promoting culture. The culture of Rwanda does not discriminate people. It is one Rwandan culture, it is one people and I believe it has really played a role in reconciliation,” she explains.

Way forward for tourism industry.

“I think we are on the right track. When somebody is coming to spend a lot of money, they need good service. So we all need to own that strategy to provide a very good product and ORTPN cannot do it alone. So we need all the Rwandans to own that strategy in whatever they do, a smile, anything, should be doing a role in promoting tourism.” She talks of the national dream to develop tourism as a major export and one of the flag bearers of the economy.

By Kiiza Calah
gorilla safari news.