Dubai behind Rwandan tourist industry growth
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Dubai is set to play a leading role in Rwanda’s budding tourism sector. A Reuters report said tourism in the small, central African republic is set to grow to a US$224 million industry in 2009.
According to Rosette Chantal Rugamba, Deputy CEO of the Rwanda Development Board, tourist arrivals will increase to 1.14 million this year. Nine new hotels and lodges across Rwanda are set to open this year with five of them owned by Dubai World. Reuters said the state-owned investment fund has sunk US$230 million into accommodation in Rwanda.
“We were projecting that by 2012, tourism will be generating 5.6% (of GDP) but we think that already at the end of this year, it will be at 5%,” Rugamba was quoted saying.
Rugamba said the coffee-growing country hopes to encourage tourists to stay longer by introducing other attractions beyond the gorilla experience. In the past, a lack of accommodation stunted the popularity of Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park, but Dubai World expects to open a 25-room lodge in the park by August, the report said
Rwanda has seen rapid growth since the 1994 genocide that so devastated the country.
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