Rwanda has commenced printing of East Africa Tourist Visa stickers ahead of January when the issuance of a single tourist visa will roll out.

The project, to be implemented under a tripartite arrangement between Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda, was agreed upon during the June Entebbe summit in Uganda, where leaders of the three countries agreed to establish a single tourist visa, a single customs territory as well as fast track joint railway line project, oil pipeline, and adopt national identity cards as travel documents.

Rwanda was tasked to spearhead a single tourist visa, use of IDs as travel documents, as well as single customs territory.

Monique Mukaruliza, the national coordinator of the trilateral initiative, told The New Times yesterday that Rwanda is ready to execute the project, but that a regional meeting is being planned for Kigali next week to assess the readiness of each country to implement the project.

"We have started printing the visa stickers and ready to start issuing them come January. The procurement process is ongoing and we are optimistic about its success,” she Mukaruliza.

The visa will cost $100 (about Rwf66,500) valid for 90 days, and will be paid at the point of entry in a member country or foreign missions. 

The issuing country will take $40, including $10 for administration cost, while other two members will share the remaining $60 equally.

A holder of a single tourist visa will be able to move around three countries without seeking the any other travel document which is expected to increase tourists’ movement.

Monitoring effectiveness

Mukaruliza said the transfer of shares to other members will be done on quarterly basis, although a report indicating the performance will be released monthly.

Rwanda will print the first batch of visa stickers to be used in all the three countries for three months after which Kenya will follow and then Uganda, Mukaruliza said.

After that rotational period, each country will be able to print its own, she added.

The projected single visa is expected to save potential tourists time and the painstaking process of having to move from one embassy to another seeking different visas to travel across the East African region.

Visa sticker design

The document, referred to as the "East Africa Tourist Visa,” is green in colour. It has emblems of the three countries, common wildlife, place of validity, a unique visa number and spaces for personal data.

Osborn Kinene, the Rwanda Eco-tours country manager, says as tour operators, they are looking forward to the project implementation.

"We are bound to benefit more as tour operators since we will be getting clients collectively. Previously, there were some tourists who would want to visit different countries but because of bureaucracies and use of different Visas they ended up visiting one country,” he said.

One of the harmonised visa system that has succeeded is Schengen Visa that operates in 25 countries, including 22 European countries and three non-European Union members.

The document has eased movement of tourists by eliminating bureaucratic tendencies during pursuit of visas.

Tourism in East Africa is among the highest revenue earners, with enormous employment opportunities.

Currently, tourism is Rwanda’s top foreign exchange earner, after it fetched about Rwf178 billion last year. So far, this year, Rwanda Development Board says the sector has recorded investments worth more than $32.8 million.

The country’s major tourist attractions are Mountain gorillas, as well as Akagera and Nyungwe national parks, museums, Lake Kivu, bird watching, culture, Congo Nile Trail, among others.

A report, released in October by World Tourism Organisation, indicates that international tourism grew by 5 per cent in the first eight months of 2013, a better-than-expected growth believed to have been driven mostly by strong results in Europe and Asia.

International tourist arrivals reached 747 million worldwide between January and August, some 38 million more than in the same period last year.

Africa, boosted by recovery in North Africa and  the positive results of sub-Saharan destinations, received two million extra arrivals, while in the Middle East, arrivals rebounded by 7 per cent after two years of decline.