Community tourism earns Rwanda honours in Spain, Netherlands

Greg Bakunzi was the only Rwandan delegate invited to speak at the FITUR International Tourism Fair in Madrid, Spain from January 20th-24th. The founder and owner of Amahoro Tours, a Musanze-based local Tour and Travel company, Bakunzi’s solo invitation was in honor of his efforts at developing and promoting community-based tourism as an alternative tourism package in Rwanda. Bakunzi is also the owner of Red Rocks Backpackers’ Campsite and Intercultural Exchange Center in Nyakinama village in Musanze District. FITUR’s core objective is to promote sustainable development in Africa through the facilitation of networking and business opportunities in the African tourism arena. The theme for this year was “Africa: The Future is Now”. Some twenty African tourism ministers attended the seventh edition of this initiative, which was inaugurated by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General Taleb Rifai, and the Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism of the Government of Spain, José Manuel Soria. “The African continent offers a wealth of opportunities in many areas, but especially in the tourism sector. More than 1,000 projects have been presented in recent years and participation has multiplied, making this event an international point of reference,” said the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Taleb Rifai at the opening ceremony. Rwandan paraphernalia on display at the Vakantiebeurs Tourism and Leisure Fair in Ulrecht, in the Netherlands. More than 400 tourism sector professionals from across Africa discussed current issues that are most relevant for the development of African tourism, such as investment, Africa’s image and air connectivity. There were also Business-to-Business (B2B) meetings between African and Spanish companies and destinations. There were one-to-one talks between companies seeking to explore shared interests.” Also in attendance were representatives of the World Bank, private companies including Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Bench Events, airlines such as Ethiopian Airlines and organizations such as the Spanish Federation of Travel Agencies. The session also set the stage for the presentation of the forthcoming meeting of the UNWTO Commission for Africa, to be held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on 19-21 April. The African tourism ministers expressed their optimism regarding the growth potential of their countries. Africa’s tourist arrivals are expected to grow by between 2% and 5% in 2016. According to estimates, the number of tourists travelling to Africa will reach 134 million in 2030 compared to the current 54 million tourists. Bakunzi’s story I got invited after the UN saw what I’ve been doing in terms of community-based tourism in Rwanda. My invitation came from the Secretary General of the UN himself. The invitation was sent to me last year in September. I was invited to be one of the speakers and share my experience in terms of promoting community-based tourism as a core tourism product in Rwanda. They invited so many African countries with delegations ranging from ministers, government officials, investors and key tourism industry players. I was among the speakers on the opening day. The case for community-based tourism in Rwanda I spoke about my personal journey into initiating community-based tourism as an entrepreneur. I told them that once our culture and our community is well-positioned, marketed and developed, it has the potential to transform itself into a core tourism product. As you know, The United Nations is now advocating cultural tourism as a tool for development. I managed to meet and interact with different stakeholders, especially those from African countries. On the panel I was with the ministers of tourism from Ethiopia, Morocco, Ghana, Gambia, Mozambique, South Africa, and many others. The response Everyone was so impressed by the experience I have gone through as an entrepreneur who learnt everything on the job. Many expressed interest to come to Rwanda after my presentation. I think we should try to build a bridge among African countries where we can have cross-cultural exchange programs to enhance and promote our tourism industry as a continent. That is the only way that it can be a tool for development. It can’t be a tool for development as long as the doors to those cultural programs are locked. There has to be more free movement in and out of our borders. People have been doing game drives and seeing primates for a very long time. It’s now time to maintain and preserve our culture and present it to the world as a tourism product. This is not just for tourists but also within ourselves as Africans. We have the potential and we can still harness it further by working with one another. The most important thing I gained from FITUR was the networking and then the visibility because every second we had journalists coming to ask a lot of questions about Rwanda. Davidson Mugisha – founder and owner of Wildlife Tours Rwanda Mugisha’s Wildlife Tours Rwanda and Amahoro Tours exhibited for Rwanda at the the Vakantiebeurs Tourism and Leisure Fair in Ulrecht, in the Netherlands from Wednesday, January 13, to Sunday, January 17. Many travel agencies, countries, theaters and cultural associations from all over the world present themselves and their countries at this annual fair. The fair draws the attention of travelers of contemporary times as well as the tour operators and travel and tourism professionals by making them aware of the modern changes taking place in the sector of travel and tourism. It avails an opportunity to potential customers, decision makers, consultants, agents, interested travelers, tour operators and planners to gather useful and relevant information. Mugisha’s story One of the main reasons we always go to such events is to improve on the image of the country because even up to now, when you travel to those countries the only things they know about Rwanda are the genocide and gorillas. What we do is go out there and try to improve that image and reputation of the country by talking about security and safety, the tourism infrastructure and diverse wild life and cultural sights we have in the country. I also talked about the people of Rwanda and how hospitable they are. I talked about all the tourism activities and products in Rwanda, the services and facilities. I also talked extensively about regional development, for example the single tourist visa and how it’s helping the countries of East Africa to complement each other, and how, generally, we are working together as a country to improve on a daily basis. I got a lot of questions about the future of the country politically. I managed to explain the democratic processes practiced in the country and they got shocked because all they get on TV is negative info. I talked about the new products we have, like the Congo-Nile trail and bird watching and other info about the tourism diversity in Rwanda. We also go to these exhibitions to understand the needs and expectations of the foreign clientele. For example most Dutch people enjoy biking, so when you include a biking tour on their itinerary, it touches them and therefore adds value to their experience. As a tour operator I was also looking at the return on investment in terms of how many contacts I make during the exhibition because we put in lots of money for accommodation and meals and air tickets. What I realized is that people are very enthusiastic about making that first trip to Rwanda, and the minimum duration they want to spend is two weeks. Of course they are price-sensitive, so I talked about how competitive we are in terms of prices, and we are doing comparisons between Rwanda and the other destinations. Most importantly, I explained to them that Rwanda is actually cheaper. The reason people perceive it as an expensive destination is because of the gorilla permits, which in Rwanda is $750 flat, whether in low or high season, whereas in Uganda for instance, the prices go down to about $350 during the low season. When they hear this they think Uganda is cheaper, but you look at overheads like transport from the airport to the destinations, that costs more than double because of the long distance travelled, and also in terms of fatigue to the client. Rwanda is a small country which you can cover in two hours, and besides that the infrastructure is very good. So I had to make this point very clear, that it’s only the pricing of gorilla permits that’s a bit expensive. I tried to deal with the negative image that Europe has about Rwanda. We do more of an ambassadorial job for the country, and we do this by telling these people the truth about our country covering the different sectors like tourism, finance, politics In attendance was RDB tourism and conservation department, embassy of Rwanda in the Netherlands and Amahoro Tours. Netherlands as a tourist destination The main appeal of the Netherlands is the fact that the infrastructure is well-developed and also it’s not a very big country so it’s easy to cover. Most people there speak English so communication is not a problem. Besides that the tourism products are also very cheap. They were shocked that there are direct flights from Amsterdam to Kigali and very few actually knew about this.

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Community tourism earns Rwanda honours in Spain, Netherlands