The Institute of National Museums of Rwanda (INMR), yesterday, launched an awareness campaign designed to revitalize cultural tourism and promote the country’s heritage.

The event took place at Nyanza Palace, in the Southern, Province, which is now a Historical Museum.

Tourism industry remains one of the country’s top foreign exchange earners and launching cultural tourism means that Rwanda is diversifying the industry.

According to the 10-year Tourism Development Master Plan, the country plans to add more tourist products to the international market, after realizing that only a few attractions in terms of variety, quantity and quality, have been exploited.

While Rwanda's tourism receipts leaped to US$200 million (Rwf118.4billion) in 2010, up 14 percent from 2009 with 666,000 tourists visiting the country, the current tourism product offer is largely limited to the rare Mountain Gorillas.

This means that the tourism potential is not fully exploited. Yet tourism is one of Rwanda’s economic development tools, as well as the country’s area of comparative and competitive advantage.

In order to maximize the use of this tool, there is need to package more products and services to supplement the existing ones.

The revitalization of cultural tourism is a commendable step in that direction, considering that Rwanda has a rich heritage and strong culture that would be of great interest to the World.

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