Focus on tourism and conservation – this week in Rwanda

IT IS ALL ABOUT CONSERVATION THIS WEEK IN RWANDA

(Posted 03rd September 2015)

The opening last night of a photo exhibition at Rwanda’s national library in Kigali followed an event earlier in the day when a new public library was commissioned in Bisate, located not too far from Musanze, Rwanda’s springboard to the Parc de Volcanoes.

The new community library was financed under the revenue share programme RDB’s Tourism and Conservation Department abides by, which gives 5 percent of revenue receipts back to communities neighbouring national parks.

East Africa’s tourism and conservation who is who has assembled in Kigali for today’s conservation conference under the theme ‘A Conversation about Conservation’ at the Kigali Serena Conference Centre, followed by two more key events, a B2B session organized by the local hosts RDB and then a meeting of the East Africa Tourism Platform which brings together the region’s private and public sectors as a consultative platform.

Tomorrow will everyone then head to Musanze – where hotels are reportedly sold out already – in anticipation of the gorilla naming ceremony on Saturday. On the eve of the big day will the local communities come together to celebrate their own efforts and participation towards conservation with an evening of song, dance and in between speeches, locally known as ‘Igitaramo’ while on the night after the gorilla naming ceremony the ‘Crazy Gorilla Night’ will see scores of people celebrate the night away to the sounds of local and regional bands.

Tourism is Rwanda’s biggest foreign exchange earner and multipronged strategies have been put into place to increase visitor numbers and attract additional investment in the sector.

Several locally owned three and four star hotels have opened in Kigali in the more recent past and two global brands, Marriott and Radisson Blu are establishing five star properties in the Rwandan capital, while Marriott brand Protea too has been actively developing hotels in both the capital and upcountry. These efforts are supported by national airline RwandAir which operates daily flights to Kamembe from where two key tourism attractions can be accessed with ease, Nyungwe Forest National Park and of course the 224 kilometres long Congo – Nile Trail which runs along the shores of Lake Kivu to Gisenyi.

Kwita Izina is Rwanda’s showcase conservation festival and part of the East African calendar of events, where the respective tourism boards support each other with delegations heading to the various venues across the region.

Added information can be accessed via www.tourismrwanda.com and via www.rdb.rw/kwitizina