Rwanda: Best African Tourism Center 

For the second successive year, Rwanda has beaten the rest of Africa at this year's ITB Berlin tourism exhibition in Germany. 

In the tourism rankings released at the exhibition, , Rwanda  was rated ahead of Tunisia, South Africa, Namibia, Ethiopia and Kenya. Morocco, Egypt, Tanzania and Eritrea also came among the top ten African exhibitors at the exhibition in Germany.

The trade fair was attended by eleven Rwandan exhibitors - mainly from the tour operators in that country. Two officials including the Director General of Rwanda Office of Tourism and National Parks (ORTPN), Chantal Rosette Rugamba and the agency's Marketing Manager, Patrick Manzi, also attended the tourism exhibition in Germany. 

This year's exhibition attracted 11,147 exhibitors from 186 countries and attracted at  least 180,000 visitors. 

Cutting Edge 

Rwanda last year held the same position, moving from the second spot in the Africa category in 2006. 

Annet Tamara, the ORTPN Public Relations Officer, said that Rwandan representatives at the world's biggest tourism trade fair, exhibited excellence right from their marketing tools, booth design, hospitability to giving a well informative overview about their exhibits to various visitors. 

Tamara explained that “those that rank nations come to your booth as any other visitor, and take note of every single detail, ranging from how you have received them, the décor around your place, how coordinated you are, to how satisfactory are your explanations regarding various exhibits,”. 

She said that among the things that helped Rwanda win included cultural exhibits and the various types of souvenirs including locally branded coffee and tea that visitors received from Rwanda's stand attendants. A Rwandan basket weaver was among the exhibitors, she added. 

Officials also pointed to the input of German's Cologne Business School (CBS), which helped market Rwanda's tourism through a website, on which they provide crucial insight into the country's tourism sector. 

On the website, CBS sells the country under the slogan 'Rwanda: a New African Dawn'. 

Value Added 

But the success is not only about the trophy and best-exhibitor certificate that Rwanda stands to receive for its excellent position. 

Tamara expatiated that “being number one … gives confidence to our targeted tourists and partners to consider Rwanda as their tourism destination.” 

“The exhibition is also about making business for our private sector”, she continues “When such a good image is built because of a wider publicity, you start to have international companies coming to partner with your private sector, which presents an important boost to your industry.” 

The country's tourism sector has lately rediscovered itself as among top foreign exchange earner, bringing into that country’s treasury 42.3 million dollars last year. It was second to the mining sector, beating traditional higher earners coffee and tea. 

Now the ORTPN targets receiving 50,000 tourists and to generate 68million dollars this year. 

Rwanda's strategic geographical location alongside its serenity and the increasingly growing population of its mountain gorillas, security, as well as friendly policies has helped boosted tourism in that country. The protection of wildlife and tourist sites, are seen as a driving force behind the resurgence of the sector that was left in shambles by the 1994 Genocide.

 

 

AllAfrica/AOA/ Qasim