American blogger to promote Rwanda’s tourism industry

Renowned American tourism blogger, David Hoffman, has pledged to promote Rwanda’s tourism industry. Hoffman, who on Tuesday completed a one-week tour to Rwanda, said he will write e-books and make videos about the country’s tourism sector, which he will post on his blog, david@davidsbeenhere.com.

Thursday, September 19, 2013
Tourists tracking gorillas. Hoffman to give global audiences a broader view of Rwanda. The New Times /File

Renowned American tourism blogger, David Hoffman, has pledged to promote Rwanda’s tourism industry. Hoffman, who on Tuesday completed a one-week tour to Rwanda, said he will write e-books and make videos about the country’s tourism sector, which he will post on his blog, david@davidsbeenhere.com. "Many people don’t know what Rwanda offers in terms of tourism. Many only think about the gorillas or the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. So, we want to give people a broad spectrum of the country,” Hoffman noted.He said with the help of his wife Anna Hoffman, they would release monthly videos about Rwanda for the next few months, and write 52 different guide e-books for Kindle, the iPad and online PDF notes.The Florida-based couple that was in Rwanda for a week said their work would on the national parks, culture, language and the consistent development of Rwanda’s tourism sector."We worked with the Rwanda Development Board to get footage from all parks and tourism sites we toured...we are sure this will market the country when it is uploaded on the blog and other Internet sites,” Hoffman said.Rica Rwigamba, the head of the tourism department at RDB, said the initiative was part of the press trips Rwanda and partners like Qatar Airlines and RwandAir sponsor writers to market the country’s tourism sector."Nyungwe Forest Reserve Nziza project won the British Guild of Travel Writers’ Globe Award last year. So, it is through inviting writers like Hoffman that we promote Rwanda among the global travel industry,” Rwigamba said in a phone interview with The New Times.Rwanda mainly promotes her tourism through global tourism expos. Rwigamba also pointed out that the large number of Hoffman followers on his blog and his use of social media like Twitter during the whole time he and his wife were travelling through the country, was good for the country’s tourism industry.Rwanda earned $142.5m in tourism revenues in the first semester of this year compared to $128.4m in the same period last year. The country received 664,729 visitors, up from 583,096 during the same period last year.