This week, the Rwandan Embassy in Canada together with Rwanda Development Board (RDB) organised the first-ever tourism roadshows in the North American country.

In 2022, Rwanda received more than 62,000 tourists from North America, according to RDB. The events are aimed at attracting more travellers to Rwanda from Canada and will cover the cities of Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver over five days.

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The Rwandan High Commission in partnership with RDB and Myriad Marketing kickstarted the Visit Rwanda campaign in Montreal.

In the first leg of the campaign, High Commissioner Prosper Higiro stressed the significant effort by the Rwandan government to prioritise conservation, ease travel and ease doing business.

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Tourism and hospitality is one of Rwanda’s fast-growing sectors after the Covid-19 pandemic, raking in critical revenues.

According to RDB’s annual report released earlier in May, tourism revenues reached $445 million (approx. Rwf496 billion) in 2022, from a low $164 million in 2021 due to the pandemic.

The growth represents an 89 per cent recovery compared to pre-pandemic period trends. The 2022 growth in revenue is also above the earlier projected revenues ($350 million) of 2022. The sector raked in $498 million in 2019.

The government targets tourism revenues to reach $800 million in 2024.

According to RDB, in 2022, Rwanda received more than 1.1 million international visitors. Over 60 per cent of them came from African countries.