EAST AFRICA TOURISM PLATFORM RWANDA: THE NEXT FRONTIER IN EAC’S TOURISM INDUSTRY
NAIROBI, August 24, 2016
RWANDA: THE NEXT FRONTIER IN EAC’S TOURISM INDUSTRY EATP welcomes you to this year’s Kwita Izina Event and Expo which celebrates EAC’s diversity and raises awareness on Rwanda’s tourism products. This year we expect over 80 tour operators, hotels and travel agencies, from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi, in the two day (27 and 28 August) event, in our effort, to encourage cross-border trade, business partnerships and destination training. We believe that this forum as well as others highlighted in the regional calendar of events such as Kenya’s Magical Kenya, Uganda’s Pearl of Africa and Tanzania’s Karibu fair is positioning East Africa as one destination. Kwita Izina offers you a unique opportunity to engage with regional and international tourism stakeholders, create new business partnerships and exploit existing opportunities. Below are some key highlights on Destination Remarkable Rwanda.
A BRIEF ON RWANDA »» Rwanda is a rural country with about 90% of its population engaged in subsistence agriculture, mineral and agro-processing. Minerals, coffee and tea are Rwanda’s main exports. »» Besides, it is an emerging tourism destination with abundant wildlife, natural and cultural assets and adventure travel opportunities. »» With a land size of 26,338 Km2 (10,169 Miles2) and a population of 11.2 million, Rwanda is one of the smallest and densely populated EAC partner states. »» Rwanda is trying to overcome the limitations of its small, landlocked economy by leveraging on regional trade. It joined East African Community and is aligning its budget, trade and immigration policies with regional partners. »» Rwanda’s Vision 2020 seeks to transform the country from a low-income agriculture-based economy to a middle-income knowledge-based and service-oriented economy. »» The government has embraced an expansionary fiscal policy to reduce poverty by improving education, infrastructure, foreign and domestic investment and pursuing market-oriented reforms. Moreover, it is leading Africa’s digital revolution. In 2012, Rwanda completed the first modern Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Kigali. The SEZ seeks to attract investment in all sectors, including agribusiness, information and communication, trade and logistics, mining and construction. »» The Smart Kigali initiative will create access to free wireless internet on public buses, in hospitals, taxi parks, commercial buildings and restaurants, while its partnership with Korea Telecom is creating access to 4G internet for 95% of the population. »» The World Bank has praised Rwanda’s remarkable development success which has helped reduce poverty and inequality. Notably, the country has made important economic and structural reforms which have sustained economic growth over the last decade. »» Between 2001 and 2012, real GDP growth averaged 8.1% per annum. According to Fitch rating agency, the country is experiencing ‘rapid and inclusive economic growth driven by credible economic policy’. »» In 2007, Rwanda became the first country in the world to legislate an outright ban on plastic bags. »» According to the Ibrahim index of African Governance, Rwanda is one of the only two countries to show consistent overall governance improvements since 2000. It is ranked number one in Africa for Gender, and is one of the top five most improved countries since 2000. »» On the last Saturday of every month, every Rwandese including the President, participates in Umuganda; a EAST AFRICAN TOURISM PLATFORM | www. ea-tourism-platform.org
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day of national community service. Through Umuganda, Rwandese have built schools, medical centres, hydroelectric plants, and rehabilitated wetlands to create highly productive agricultural plots, and cleaned their cities, towns and villages – making Kigali one of the cleanest cities in Africa.
TOURISM: OVERVIEW »» Rwanda is well-known for tourism and conservation. Its policy emphasises on high yield; low volume tourism. »» Rwanda’s tourism product portfolio extends the region’s big five to ‘six.’ »» The country offers great diversity in terms of primate tracking, birding, cultural experiences, Congo Nile trail, caves and festivals. »» Rwanda’s Kigali Convention Centre- built in state of the art architecture raises the country’s profile as a MICE destination and adds to East Africa’s MICE product offered by Nairobi’s Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Kampala’s Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort and Dar es Salaam’s Julius Nyerere International Conference Centre, just to name a few. »» The opening of new hotel brands such as Marriot and Radsson Blu signifies international confidence in the country and further raises the bar on the quality of services, human capital, job creation and Rwanda’s value chain.
REFORMS IN THE TOURISM SECTOR »» Rwanda projects its self as a business friendly investment hub in East Africa. »» It has relaxed requirements for visitors with a visa-on-arrival policy for all Africans and an efficient visa procedure. »» Additionally, it has reduced its visa fees from US$ 60 to US$ 30; making it the lowest fee in the region. »» Besides, electronic visas are available through its virtual office policy. Subsequently, the country processes over 90,000 e-Visas per year; an equivalent of 95% of issued visas. »» At the regional level, Rwanda has abolished work permits for East Africa Community citizens. This has led to over 12,000 people getting work permits free of charge. Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda also allow travel between their countries with national identity cards, which has increased cross-border trade by 50%. The three countries launched a single tourist visa, which led to a 17% increase in arrivals to Rwanda in one year. »» RwandAir is yet another significant milestone in Rwanda’s development agenda. It is a regional airline connecting Rwanda to East Africa’s major hubs of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilimanjaro, Entebbe, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Bujumbura and Juba, hence, a key player in tourism and trade. »» Consequently, trade, tourism and investment have grown and the country’s economic outlook is strong. In 2014, GDP grew to 7% while tourism revenues rose by 4% to US$ 305 million. »» In 2015, tourism contributed US$ 317 million to Rwanda’s economy which is 3.1% of its total GDP. Moreover, the industry generated 59,000 jobs accounting for 2.6% of total employment (WTTC, 2016). EATP has confidence in Rwanda’s progress especially on visa openness, open-sky policy, tourism product development and diversification. We strongly believe that inter and intra-regional tourism can only be accelerated if policy makers and private stakeholders can embrace a far-sighted, team-oriented and bold approach in selling the region. As such, we recommend further investment in human-capital development, competitiveness and delivery of value for money. The private sector should be incentivized to lead and drive regional and domestic tourism.
REFERENCE http://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact-research/countries-2016/rwanda2016.pdf http://africabusiness2020.com/2015/07/21/10-interesting-facts-about-rwanda/ The CIA World Factbook 2016
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EAST AFRICA TOURISM PLATFORM Kenya Tourism Federation – Secretariat| KWS Headquarters – Langata Road, P.O. Box 15013-00509, Nairobi| Tel: +254208001000/3/1| Mobile: +254724624538 Facebook: East Africa Tourism Platform| Twitter: @TourismEA| EAST AFRICAN TOURISM PLATFORM | www. ea-tourism-platform.org Skype: tourismea
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