Rwanda: Safe Enough to Visit
To the surprise of many, Rwanda has become one of the safest countries in Africa these days, helping it to attract record numbers of tourists. The numbers are still small compared with other African countries, but tourism has become a very important–and growing–industry for Rwanda.
Rwanda's prime attraction, of course, is its endangered mountain gorillas, made famous by the late primatologist Dian Fossey (and featured in the movie Gorillas in the Mist). There are barely 700 of these gorillas left in the world, and Rwanda and neighboring Uganda are the only places where tourists can have access to them.
Last year, nearly 13,000 visitors made the trek to Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park to see one of the country's seven gorilla families. Americans were, by far, the largest group, accounting for almost 4,000 of those visits. Foreigners pay $400 per person for a permit to make the trek (the government is raising the price to $500 this summer.) The day-long visit involves a guided hike (ranging from about 30 minutes to three hours) out to the gorillas and no more than one hour with the primates.
But Rwanda is quickly running up against some built-in limitations. Because the gorillas are so endangered, the number of visitors is strictly regulated. Groups are restricted to eight people and, for conservation reasons, only one group can visit a gorilla family each day. This creates a built-in limit of just over 20,000 people who could get permits each year.
Rwanda's government, however, has an ambitious goal of some 70,000 visitors by 2010, which means they have a long way to go. Officials are also trying to attract luxury tourists (who would spend about $200 a day) and persuade them to stay for at least a week. These days, the bulk of the tourists coming to Rwanda are spending only two or three days in Rwanda as part of a larger tour in Uganda or Kenya. "Most people come to see the gorillas and go," says Christopher Tocca, the acting director of the Rwanda office of the U.S. Agency for International Development. "They need to get high-end tourists to stay longer."
Rwanda's tourist infrastructure, however, is still limited. There are, for example, only two true luxury hotels in the whole country. Rwandan officials admit that they need to expand the options for tourists–and work is already underway to improve transportation and encourage entrepreneurs to open smaller, boutique hotels.
Boasting a year-round, temperate climate, Rwanda does have several unique attractions. Along with the gorillas, it has one of Africa's last remaining high-altitude forests (Nyungwe Forest National Park, famous for its 13 different species of monkeys. Lake Kivu, in western Rwanda, is a beautiful and almost entirely undeveloped and unsoiled freshwater lake. And Akagera National Park, in the east, offers a chance to go on safari to see buffalos, elephants, zebras, giraffes, and hippos without the crowds seen in many parks in nearby countries. Rwanda is "one of the secrets of Africa," says Michael Arietti, the U.S. ambassador to Rwanda.
Rwanda still has to overcome a powerful stigma from the 1994 genocide. For most westerners, the country is still synonymous with violence and bloodshed. But for visitors, there are some very moving museums and memorials to see.
The government is trying to develop a regular circuit for tourists. Under the developing plan, visitors would start in Kigali. After heading out west to see the gorillas, they would go to the border town of Gisenyi on the shores of Lake Kivu. There, the government is trying to start up a boat service that would take passengers to the resort towns of Kibuye and Cyangugu. From either town, tourists could easily reach the Nyungwe forest. Separately, they could extend their trip with a safari in Akagera.
Officials have particularly high hopes for the stunning Nyungwe forest, which is home to a wide variety of primates and birds, and offers stunning vistas of its 200 different kinds of trees. Tourists these days also have the place largely to themselves, because it is under-visited. USAID has launched "Destination Nyungwe," a project aimed at boosting the number of visitors to the park while promoting environmentally sustainable tourism. Still, the tourist facilities in the area need improvement, and the nearby city of Huye (formerly called Butare), Rwanda's second-largest town, remains without a luxury, or high-end, hotel.
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