Though gorilla tourism has been a focus for tourism in Rwanda for the past decades fetching in thousands of travelers, a need for diversification has been appreciated. Currently, there are only six choices from which travelers can decide on what to take part in while in Rwanda. These include mountain gorillas being most favored in volcanoes national park, canopy walk in Nyungwe forest national park, lake kivu, bird watching, and galleries or else national and game parks all over the country.
In this land of a thousand hills, Gorilla trekking being the foremost, a permit costs $1500 making it a cash cow that has driven increased revenue from the tourism sector for the government. For non East Africans, purchasing a gorilla permit seems expensive but agreements that are value prevalence make it reasonable for travelers from all over the world.
There is high demand for the mountain gorilla permits in Rwanda in that its rare to find a weekend not overbooked despite the high costs (1500USD). This indicates that travelers surely enjoy trekking.
However though memorable, Mountain gorilla tracking entails hiking up and down the jungle, which can even take a whole day. The activity is so interesting but very tiresome in that by the end of the trek, no single traveler wishes to go back. As a result, most travelers both international and Rwanda residents have not trekked the mountain gorillas more than once.
More still, for one to enjoy most attractions in Rwanda, he/she has to travel from the capital Kigali to remote areas for example the mountain gorillas in volcanoes national park. This make it quite difficult travelling to the park hence not done by travelers with limited time.
After the RDB analyzed tourism products in the world’s foremost tourism destinations, France, United States, Spain and china, it really realized a need to add new products. It realized that a traveler could come to Rwanda and fail to get a package he/she is interested in apart from the already existing ones. After looking at the tourism products menu for Rwanda development board. There is still a miss for some products, which are offered in the tourism leading destinations.
The observations and research done show that a number of tourism attractions in US, France, china and Spain are located in the city. This has raised the appetite for internationals to visit the cities of shanghai, Paris, New York, Beijing and Madrid. After stepping in any of these cities, its obvious that you can realize the reason why most people travel there. More still, the eye catching sites, greatly leisure parks and shopping stores in these cities make it obvious for every traveler to love their stay wishing to visit again as soon as possible.
Most importantly, it is believed that Kigali could find a golden opportunity in what these leading cities do not have. The best example here is the great weather in Rwanda, which is so unique compared to winter in these great cites. The favorable weather is a natural gift that African countries are blessed with but few in not all have put in any effort to package it as a tourism product. Once winter begins, most people in U.S.A, Europe and Asia particularly the elderly find it hard to stay in their countries hence running up to warmer places probably Africa which is a great opportunity for any African country.
Because of the good weather, there have been evidences that all travelers who have visited Rwanda have fallen in love with her great weather. There is ever a natural equalizer that balances warmth and coolness in Kigali, making it conducive to stay in the city all year round. This means that once in Rwanda, whether rainy, or sunny, the season does not matter which make it a paradise.
Alternatively still, Putting up Bandas in Kigali would also be a good idea if at all a couple of them could be loaned in the city. These Banda’s have currently become unique attractions in these leading cities hence would work for Rwanda too.
In conclusion therefore, Rwanda has a great potential for tourism, The Rwanda development board should therefore develop holiday resorts, leisure parks, ease local managerial principles, include locals in city planning, relieve city movement, endorse theater industry and uphold present safety for tourism.