Hundreds visit Rwanda’s Arusha tourism stand

ARUSHA - Scores of people over the weekend thronged Rwanda’s tourism stand during the Karibu Travel and Tourism Fair in Arusha, Tanzania to see and read about the country’s rich culture and tourism endowments. The visitors at the Magereza open grounds included Tanzania’s Minister of natural resources and tourism, Shamsa Mwangunga, who was welcomed to Rwanda’s stand by Shakilla Umutoni, the First Counsellor at the Embassy of Rwanda in Dar es Salaam. The stand, decorated in the national flag’s blue, yellow and green colors was among other two hundred and seventy stands that belonged to various tourism organizations from across the world. “I particularly liked the Rwandan traditional dances performed by those girls at the stand. It’s high time all of us enhanced our culture through such performances. There is still lack of enough promotion for tourism in our region,” Minister Mwangunga told The Sunday Times during the exhibition. The Karibu Travel and Tourism Fair, a three day International Travel and Tourism Fair was jointly organized by Tanzania Association of Tour Operators, Tanzania Tourist Board together with the Ministry of Natural Resource and Tourism. For Robert Magombana a Tanzanian tour operator, Rwanda exhibiting at the fair was a dream come true as he had long searched for information about a country ranked among the ten world tourism destinations by Lonely Planet, a leading tourism directory. “Yes, I’ve been visiting their tourism website but had never exchanged contacts with my fellow tour operators and officials from Rwanda. This was a grand opportunity for me to enhance my horizons,’ Magombana said. Umutoni said that since this was Rwanda’s first time to exhibit at the fair, a lot of knowledge had been gained through interactions, especially that the fair was conducted in a neighboring country. The diplomat added that the exhibition served as an opportunity to reach many others who lack facts and detailed information about Rwanda. “We also got very many people who expressed their appreciation for the enormous achievements our country has registered in several areas,” Umutoni said. The exhibition was mainly characterized by tour operators, providers of accommodation facilities, air operators, operators of Adventure safaris-walking, beach, and mountain climbing. Others are; scuba diving, sport fishing-large manufactures and general suppliers as well as smaller industries, handcraft groups, and entertainment facilities. Gervais Mutabazi, a Rwandan tour operator, said that it was an opportunity as many of his colleagues from different countries had promised to send tourists to Rwanda, given that it has unique tourism features. “For example, in Nyungwe Park, you will find waterfalls, chimpanzees and many other animals. This is unique with other countries as a tourist will have to travel long distances from one park to another just to see different animals,” Mutabazi said. The fair has been conducive to informal networking and getting to know each other better among all stakeholders in the Tourism industry. Ends