It is impossible to discuss tourism without mentioning hotels, as after visiting the natural attractions of a given country, tourists need an adorable place to rest and receive excellent services.
In Rwanda, this has been a key focus, as in the last five years, the country had only 10,000 rooms, which means that in less than 60 months, 15,000 additional rooms have been established.
Yves Ngenzi, the Director of the Tourism Department at PSF, stated that this is a significant step forward in increasing the number of hotels that accommodate tourists visiting Rwanda.
'These are just rooms for sleeping. There are many others which provide other services such as dining facilities. The growth is impressive and we count hotel rooms to assess our progress,' he said.
Ngenzi also revealed that they are working hard to ensure that within the next five years, Rwanda will have 35,000 hotel rooms. Last year, tourism brought in $620 million for Rwanda.
As part of the second phase of the National Strategy for Transformation (NST2), it is projected that by 2029, tourism will generate $1.1 billion for the country.
"This clearly shows that we need to expand our infrastructure, increase the number of hotels, improve our services, and attract more conferences, among other things. That is why we are committed to adding 10,000 more hotel rooms in the next five years,' he said.
Currently, the Tourism Department has registered 1,360 businesses and seven different tourism associations. This is a substantial number compared to five years ago when there were only about 450 businesses.
Ngenzi also highlighted that many others have not yet registered with PSF's tourism department.
"This is a growing sector. Tourism used to be underestimated, but if you look at the revenue it generates, it's significant. Currently, tourism has created 165,000 jobs when we consider those directly involved," he said.
According to him, this is a considerable number of jobs, accounting for 10% of all new jobs created in the country, excluding agriculture and livestock.
Besides adding 10,000 more hotel rooms, Ngenzi explained that within the next five years, they will make efforts to boost local production to achieve the country's goal of increasing tourism revenues by 13% annually and raising private sector investment to $4.6 billion by 2029, up from $2.2 billion in 2024.
Ngenzi said that this will go hand in hand with promoting conference tourism, religious tourism, and increasing the number of tourist attractions, so that the money tourists spend in Rwanda continues to grow.
When asked about domestic tourism, which helps the sector remain stable even when the number of international tourists decreases, Ngenzi said that it is doing well, but it is not yet at the required level.
'For example, visiting the gorillas costs $1,500 for foreigners. Few Rwandans can afford that. There are lower prices for Rwandans, but the revenue we want to generate won't be achievable without foreign tourists. That's why we are looking to attract more Africans to visit Rwanda,' he explained.
'These initiatives will also include building capacity for those in the sector, particularly in terms of knowledge, with students gaining internships, as we have seen that 30% of those who receive internships secure jobs,' he added.
These initiatives will also focus on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which play a significant role in the sector's growth. For example, 80% of businesses offering tourism services in Rwanda are SMEs, showing the importance of closely monitoring this category.
On her part, Michaella Rugwizangoga, the Director of the Tourism Department at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), mentioned that as Rwanda's tourism industry grows, so does the well-being of Rwandans, especially those living near tourist sites.
'We have a plan to share tourism revenues with the local communities, where 10% of the ticket value for visiting parks goes to projects like road construction, hospitals, schools, and others. This 10% is not tax but a portion of the revenue generated from visits to natural attractions.'
She mentioned that so far, 1,000 projects have been supported, and over Rwf 12 billion has been given to local communities, stressing that this will continue as the sector develops.
Statistics show that over 1.4 million people visited Rwanda in 2023, and this number is expected to double by 2029, with more destinations being added by RwandAir.
IGIHE
Source : https://en.igihe.com/news/article/the-beauty-of-over-25-000-hotel-rooms-in-rwanda-pictorial
