Rwanda's tourism sector on the right track

Editor, RE: “Good customer care will spur tourism growth” (The New Times, April 21). Rwanda, with no doubt, is up there among the top destinations in Africa. I was so ignorant about the natural endowments Rwanda has until I was offered a guided familiarization trip that took about nine days of road drive but I could not exhaust what the country offered. Issues of quick service delivery can be answered as well, I am a believer in positive change and soon it will happen. Kenya’s tourism sector is old enough to have minimized most of the challenges that Rwanda’s young tourism sector is facing. It is a long achievable journey that needed to break the jinx of our mentality. There was this myth that is fading out – whereby girls who used to work in hotels were merely taken for prostitutes and so on. For the boys, they were more associated with academic failure although this view seems to have faded. The other issue that was associated with lack of knowledge was considering waiters/waitresses as housemaids. Given what Rwanda’s education system is offering and how nationals are embracing it, the tourism sector – which is largely driven by the Government – will soon maximize its true potential. There was also this imaginary travel ban whereby the young generation was kind of limited to move around but now they are moving up and down seeking education, leisure, among others. Learning foreign cultures and customs can also help so much, with the majority of the travelers tending to feel at home while away as they explore new things. Kassim Bizimungu

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Rwanda's tourism sector on the right track