10 Year Tourism Master Plan Launched
Within days of the Rwandan cabinet approving the recently developed tourism master plan for Rwanda has the ground breaking document been launched to the tourism industry and society at large in Kigali last week. The document outlines on nearly 200 pages the various hubs of activity across the country, tailored along which the sector will further diversify to add new products alongside the all important gorilla tracking.
Kigali, where visitors to the country arrive by air, is the central ‘hub’ of the tourism industry, while upcountry the following areas have been mapped out for product innovation, the creation of new tourist attractions, the addition of cultural attractions, community based tourism activities and intensified marketing: Volcanoes Area, Nyungwe area, Akagera area and the areas around Kibuye and Gisenyi in Western Rwanda.
The Rwanda Development Board & Tourism and Conservation, has already over the past year sped up their effort to diversify their marketing efforts, and had targeted successfully bird watching and forest walking, in particular at the Nyungwe National Park, where also a high elevation ‘tree top walk’ is to be established, permitting visitors to spend time high up in the foliage of the tropical rain forest and observe birds and insects directly ‘eye to eye’.
The new master plan also outlines plans for a greater involvement of the country in MICE traffic, by attracting meetings and conventions to Rwanda, now that new facilities have sprung up, are nearing completion or have broken ground in recent months. All the best to Rica and her team to implement all these plans in coming years and bring yet more success for the Rwandan tourism industry.