Carmen Nibigira

OURJOURNEY TOURISM PROMOTION & MARKETING FOR BURUNDI

CARMEN NIBIGIRA, PROUD BURUNDIAN

Burundi’s tourism lives on

Our Remarkable Journey Dear Friends of Burundi and Colleagues: From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all for the overwhelming messages of support and encouragement. I am deeply moved and I feel honoured.

First, I want to thank both the Government and the people of Burundi for providing me with an opportunity to serve my country in the role of Director General of the National Tourism Office of Burundi.

The new management team and I were appointed at a time when Burundi was looking at reviving its tourism sector and aligning itself with a tourism strategy that would also be in sync with other regional countries within the East African Community.

Ours was a desire to offer Burundi as a complementary tourism destination to the region while at the same time mapping out new avenues through which Burundi could create its own identity.

With the support of the team at the ONT, the government and the private sector, we slowly managed to turn the tide, and Burundi is on a grand march to becoming the de facto events capital of East Africa.

With the generous support of many of you, we created a vibrant image of Burundi and had Buja (Bujumbura) host some high profile events. These included art, cultural and sports events like: the first Bujumbura Fashion Week, the Bujumbura marathon, a movie in a park and much more.

It is no doubt that the cultural and arts scene in Buja is among one of the most

LIVINGSTONE-STANLEY MEMORIAL

vibrant in the region and our intention was to elevate these to an even higher level and make some of these events global events to bring Africa and the world to Buja in a celebration of life, culture, arts, fashion, music, sports and gastronomy.

We were able to stage for the first time numerous activation campaigns across the city of Berlin in a fashion never been witnessed before.

Domestic tourism was our mission, and our ultimate goal was to engage Burundians and international residents in tourism activities around the country, which would allow them to discover the beauty of the country.

fairs such as: Tourism Bourse (ITB) in Berlin, Germany and Foire de Lyon in France.

In Germany, through the support of friends, colleagues and the Burundian Diaspora, we were able to stage for the ďŹ rst time numerous activation campaigns across the city of Berlin in a fashion never been witnessed before. Through these campaigns, we were able to bring the history and culture of Burundi closer to the ordinary people, many of whom did not have the slightest idea where Burundi was located in the world.

Developing our tourism products and improving our customer services were and will remain our priorities in the future. Indeed, the journey for the tourism sector has just started.

Through such campaigns, we managed to not only inform the German public about Burundi and what it has to offer in terms of tourism and investment opportunities, but we were also able to paint a new image of our beloved country as a peaceful nation that was on the path to economic prosperity and integration within the regional economies.

I was also privileged to travel with the Burundian delegation earlier this year to attend international travel and tourism

In France we showcased the raw beauty of Burundi and business opportunities in a manner that had never been done before.

THE KARERA FALLS, BURUNDI

Moreover, we managed to host highprofile media interviews with some of the leading media houses from across Europe and East Africa from print to digital media.

This contributed greatly to the visibility of Burundi as a nation that had already turned the corner and was ready to welcome the world to sample our unrivaled hospitality and opportunities.

Our absence over the past two decades on the international travel and tourism market is still strongly felt, and we believe in the potential of our country. A window of opportunities is opened for the tourism sector in Burundi, and our work has just begun. Kindly support us in our journey.

I would like to state that I am deeply proud of the achievements that we managed to accomplish as a team

To ensure that we all had a common agenda towards tourism marketing, development and promotion and advancement of investments in Burundi, the national tourism office worked closely with the Burundi private sector, the backbone of the tourism sector.

The Sectorial Chamber for Hotel and Tourism at the Federal Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Burundi was a strong partner in our mission, and along with the new National Tourism Commission, the journey of bringing tourism to the agenda of economic development was starting to happen.

Through such partnerships, we envisioned opening communication channels between the private sector, which is the main stakeholder in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry in Burundi and the Government of Burundi, the policy maker.

Other key partners such as the National

Institute for Conservation and the Environment, Trade Mark East Africa, UNDP, WTO, and PSDE were instrumental in our mission and we hope to forge strong ties in the future.

Such a move was aimed at ensuring that we had a common objective and that our plans were in sync with each other for the advancement of the sector and the larger Burundian economy.

While I cannot highlight all that we did in this brief, I would like to state that I am deeply proud of the achievements that we managed to accomplish as a team, in spite of the challenges that we encountered along the way.

We rallied friends of Burundi wherever they were, and we created the impossible: a new website on a pro-bono basis, which became the window of the national tourism office. In addition, with generosity and support from volunteers and businesses together, we gave a much needed facelift to our office. I am highly optimistic that the future remains bright for Burundi and its people.

I am humbled by your continued support. I urge all of you to continue supporting the National Tourism Office of Burundi in its quest to transform the image of Burundi as well as to develop the tourism industry.

Support the new Director General and his team. Let us all play our part in making Burundi great.

This is our beloved country; Our Beautiful Burundi.

Many thanks to you all.

Carmen NIBIGIRA

Carmen Nibigira