Rwanda rising

Rwanda, a country with high tourism ambitions, will generate up to $360 million revenue from tourism, in 2022, according the Tourism and Conservation Department at the Rwanda Development Board.

 

In the recent past, millions in investment money were injected into the development of tourism and, despite challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the high investment continues to bear fruit.

 

Besides tourism, Rwanda's largest foreign exchange earner, having already generated more than 90,000 jobs, so far, the everyday impact tourist attractions have on their surrounding communities also speaks volumes.

 

The government sees tourism as a special tool to eradicate poverty. Every year, since 2005, the government invests 10% of the revenue obtained from tourism in communities living around national parks. In the last 18 years, the Tourism Revenue Share (TRS) program has seen more than Rwf 7.9 billion distributed to more than 880 community-based projects including construction of houses, schools, health centers, water supplies, modern markets, and roads.

 

In August 2022, communities in Kayonza District were given a fish farm, an industrial park, teachers’ hostels and an abattoir. They were also given a workshop for tailoring, carpentry, and electrical engineering, and modern market. These initiatives are a dream come true to rural communities living near Rwanda’s national parks and a life changer to so many, as they created jobs for the communities. The TRS initiative also encouraged communities living around the parks to be part of the biodiversity conservation effort instead of poaching.

 

Money is invested in projects that change the lives of inhabitants near the national parks such that they do not rely on poaching or cutting trees in parks for survival.

 

Everything is centered on improving people’s welfare. The government shares tourism revenues with the people and sits down with them to have candid discussions so as to ably determine the most important projects for them.

 

In 2016, authorities handed over seven primary school classrooms to a community in Mukamira Sector, Nyabihu District. They cost Rwf55.8 million generated from tourism revenue. Beatrice Mukandekezi, a resident of Gasizi Cell in Mukamira Sector, Nyabihu District, had three children studying at a school built thanks to TRS money.

 

Thanks to tourism, she said, her community got clean drinking water near and “our children are getting enough time to study because they no longer spend long hours fetching water, something that made them delay getting to school.”

 

In 2019, communities around the Volcanoes National Park in the districts of Burera, Nyabihu, Musanze and Rubavu were given 729 cows to boost their welfare. One the beneficiaries, Félicien Senyiki, a resident of Bigogwe sector in Nyabihu District, said “buying milk cost me a lot of money” but, with a cow, his life would only get better.

 

“That is the same story for my neighbours and many other people around here. With this cow, we won’t have to buy milk anymore,” he said.

 

From 2005 to 2019, before the pandemic, more than 250 classrooms were built, 80 water harvesting facilities constructed, 120 houses built for vulnerable families, four modern markets elected, and six milk diaries set up, all for Rwandans living near the national parks.

 

Throughout 2022, more than Rwf2 billion will be invested, countrywide, in various community projects. In 2021, despite the pandemic which affected the tourism sector, government invested Rwf700 million generated from tourism revenue.

 

Enter Kwita Izina

 

Gorilla tourism is one of the key contributors to the tourism sector’s recovery. The Government, through the Rwanda Development Board and in collaboration with conservation partners, achieved success in protecting and increasing the endangered mountain gorilla population and conserving its habitat, thanks to community led conservation efforts. The mountain gorilla population in the Virunga Massif increased from 480 in 2010 to 604 as of June 2016.

 

Lately, the annual Kwita Izina, or Gorilla naming, ceremony – a testament to the future of conservation – is scheduled for September 2, in Kinigi, Musanze District.

 

The September 2 event will be the first in-person ceremony after holding it virtually for the last two years due to the pandemic. Dignitaries and celebrities from across Africa and around the world are invited for the colorful all-day affair.

 

Since the start of the naming ceremony in 2005, 354 baby gorillas were named.

 

This year’s celebration will see 20 new-born gorillas given names. It will showcase Rwanda’s conservation efforts, including the need to expand the habitat of the endangered mountain gorillas.

 

Volcanoes National Park, a home to mountain gorillas, is one of the leading contributors of tourism revenue. During the first six months of 2022, the park generated $11 million. In 2021 and 2020, it fetched $6 million and $5.9 million, respectively. The park’s revenues stood at $21.9 million before the pandemic.

 

Generally, Rwanda’s successful conservation story is hinged on the fact that the government approaches conservation as a way to safeguard the country’s natural heritage for future generations while contributing to the national economy.