Students and academic staff under the Association for Tourism and Leisure Education (Atlas) are meeting in Kigali to chart ways of improving tourism in the country and Africa at large. 

The 8th Atlas meeting, that started yesterday, is being hosted by Rwanda Tourism College (RTUC) . 

Opening the forum, Rica Rwigamba, the head of tourism and conservation at Rwanda Development Board (RDB), said government, in its strategic vision on the development of international tourism, recognises specific opportunities for improving the sector’s facilities in general and further capitalising on the three main assets (bird watching, mountain gorilla viewing and the national parks). 

Other areas of concentration, she said, include increasing the attraction for business travel and meetings, incentives, congresses and events, commonly known as Mice. 

"Nature endowed Africa with a very enviable environment, very hospitable people with a very good sense of adaptation over time and space. Even governments have crafted different policies that are meant to maximise gains from the tourism industry,” Rwigamba told the students. 

She added that the deliberations should contribute towards the creation of a new paradigm of appreciating and promoting the values of tourism in Rwanda and indeed Africa in the global society.

The conference brought together delegates from 30 countries. 

"Because RTUC trains personnel basing on modules that are competitive and relevant to the world labour market, sharing knowledge and working with well-known researchers and academics becomes not a choice but a necessity,” said Callixte Kabera the RTUC rector. 

René van der Duim, the chairperson of Atlas Africa, said tourism growth is no longer in Europe since they have been to all sights. 

"Rwanda has natural resources that are unique to sale to tourists. In the long run, gorillas will not be a new thing to many tourists, therefore, Rwanda needs to diversify its tourism attraction,” Duim said.