RWANDA IMPRESSES INDIA AHEAD OF RWANDAIR’S FLIGHT LAUNCH TO MUMBAI
(Posted 25th February 2017)
For the second time was Rwanda showcasing its remarkable attractions and investment opportunities in tourism and hospitality at the OTM, aka Outbound Travel Market. It also coincided with plans to launch long haul direct flights to Mumbai in April this year by RwandAir, that will be instrumental in deepening trade between the two countries as well as helping boost tourism arrivals from India and Asia generally.
Widely recognized as India’s leading travel trade show, the Outbound Travel Mart 2017, which was held in Mumbai from February 21st – 23rd is the largest source market for leisure and MICE travel in India. More than a 1.000 sellers from 52 countries exhibited, including a number of National Tourism Organizations, Hotels, Airlines, Destination Marketing Companies and other suppliers serving leisure as well as MICE Markets.
Rwanda Tourism was presented at the closing ceremony of the travel trade show the ‘Most promising new destination award‘. Rwanda was showcasing among 1,000 exhibitors to an interested audience of about 15,000 people. Visitors to the Rwanda stand were taken on an incredible journey as they discovered Rwanda’s breath-taking scenery and landscape; eco-adventure tourism like gorilla trekking, nature walks, and birding; the booming hospitality sector; and the advent of world-class conferencing venues.
RDB, which is tasked to promote Rwanda’s tourism industry, has identified India as one of its key source market, with 15 million travelers and US$12.3 billion spending globally in foreign destinations annually. As Mumbai is the business hub of India, the travel show was a great occasion for Rwanda to actively promote Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Events, to an audience where a majority of outbound trips are for business purposes.
Belise Kariza, the Chief Tourism Officer at the Rwanda Development Board, said ‘We are very pleased of the award given to Remarkable Rwanda, our participation at India’s leading outbound travel show presented a good opportunity to tap into a fast-growing market of tourists‘ before she added: ‘Rwanda denoted itself as a premier business and tourism destination in Africa and created awareness of Rwanda’s diverse range of unique experiences, for both business and leisure travel‘.
Representatives from the Rwandan tourism industry, including tour and travel operators, RwandAir and RDB were representing Rwanda’s tourism offerings. The trade show conducted in a business-to-business (B2B) format allowed Rwandans to connect with businessmen all around the world and have an engaging conversation about what Rwanda has to offer in the tourism sector, and to attract more visitors from Asia.
For more information about Destination Rwanda click on www.rwandatourism.com
