| Rwanda News Agency,
5 August 2008
Tourism revenues are up by 22% as of June compared
to the same period last thanks to a new UN tabulation
method that government has adopted, RNA reports.
Revenue generation has now reached some US$80million
(44 billion Francs) from a record 408,482 visitor
arrivals, the Office for Tourism and National Parks
(ORTPN) announced on Monday evening.
The Director General Ms. Rosette Rugamba said the
mid term results were computed using the new Statistics
gathering tools developed in collaboration with a
team of international consultants.
The project is financed by the World Bank as part
of the $40million Competitive and Enterprise Development
Project (CEDP). The program approved in 2001 targets
business reform, as well as the banking and non-banking
sectors.
"In the past tourism revenues statistics primarily
looked at holiday visitors and some business travelers
where as other countries computed their visitor numbers
and revenue to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation
standards that consider all international visitors
including all business visitors, visitors to friends
and relatives (VFR travelers) as well as transit and
other purposes", ORTPN said.
Tourism contribution to the National Gross Domestic
Product in 2007 was estimated at 3.7% making it the
number one foreign exchange earner, officials said.
Hotel capacity is up as well from 2391 in 2007 to
3282 rooms countrywide. The Private sector also says
9 new hotel projects in the pipeline with 416 rooms
that will be operational by end of 2008.
Five years ago, according to ORTPN, there were only
651 rooms available countrywide.
Based on the previous statistical methodology, Rwanda
earned some $42.3 million last year from some 38,000
visitors. Gorilla tourism alone - that has seen vast
numbers of tourists heading to northern Rwanda for
a view of the rare mountain gorillas - brought in
$7million.
Officials have maintained previously that they did
not think figures available were the exact reflection
of the visitor numbers. The new development is from
collaboration with the National Institute of Statistics.
However, concerns from people that have visited remain
with the services they get from the largely non-professional
hospitality sector. There have been cases when tourists
come in Rwanda as their lead-destination but have
reverted to regional neighbours out of frustration
with the services rendered.
Various training institutions are coming up expected
to raise the skills gap of the sector's employees.
.
For further information on this conference, please
contact ORTPN office at 576514/576515 or email at
kwitaizina@rwandatourism.com
, or visit our website at www.kwitizina.org
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