Recent African tourism records show Rwanda as one of the fast growing touristic destination in Africa.Realistically Rwandan is greatly dependent on mountain gorillas safaris attracting the largest international crowd with just few other add-on attractions added along the mountain gorillas to make a standard Rwanda tour package. Other attractions include the genocide memorial sites, canopy walk, lake Kivu, mount hiking.
In my point of view, if Rwanda as a tourism destination, needs to maximally compete with other already existing safari destinations with East Africa like Kenya, Tanzania and even Uganda, there still a lot to be done by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in terms of diversifying attractions so as abstain optimal tourism potential in the country.
The is a great need for RDB to research more, as well as collect suggestions from the public on the possibilities of expanding attractions. Not all visitors coming into Rwanda are looking for gorillas, maybe another attraction not offered on the RDB menu and yet the tourism sector should be in possible to explore all possibilities.
Looking at international tourism in more developed countries like United States, France, China, you will discover that most of the popular visited destinations are with in major cities contrary to the largely marketed destinations in Africa where touristic national parks are located miles away from the city centers. which makes it convinient for travelers to flock them as well as local people.
Hence a big question arises. How can we make Kigali a top destination for tourists traveling into Rwanda? Which Attractions are currently in Kigali and how can they be improved to make the city an alluring place for tourists?
Here are some pointer the RDB would consider.
Access to city maps for tourists as they arrive into Kigali is very important, just like in other big cities. The map should highlight vantage points and sights, walking paths and museums, markets and foods delights, taxis. Currently Rwanda does not offer such maps; and so tourists cannot know how to traverse through Kigali.
Secondly, the RDB should focus on small eye catching things, the details, the highlights that make a “place” interesting. A lot of research need to be done
Thirdly, comparing Kigali to some of the great cities like Newyork, Paris, Madrid, tokyo – even though it feels like making an unfair comparison, Kigali – Rwanda should concentrate on the opportunities she has over the great cities – like for example great weather all year round! Winter is certainly a tough weather, in which, most people who can afford an Africa safari plan to travel to warm Africa
This is just one of the many possibilities Rwanda could explore and and develop. RDB need to look good weather possibilities like build leisure parks in Kigali, holiday resorts, cultural and community projects, easy city movements, security, protected environment, city planning and so much more.
