Rwanda faces uphill struggle to lure foreigners to visit

AKAGERA PARK – Submerged in the muddy waters of a Rwandan lake, Mutware cools down from the scorching morning heat, ignoring the crowd of visitors who have come to see him.

Flapping his ears as birds rest on his back, the 38-year-old rogue elephant seems out of sorts – there is no sign of the aggressive beast that wrecked at least three cars last year, prompting a security warning from the US State Department. “Mutware, Mutware, wake up!” several villagers cry out, eager to please the tourists who have come to see the elephant.But it takes several hours and some cassava flour and leaves to make Mutware move.Villagers say the elephant is tired after a long night of feeding on their crops.Mutware’s bathing spot, Lake Ihema, in Rwanda’s eastern Akagera Park, is just one of the attractions some 25 000 foreign tourists visited last year in tiny Rwanda.For many people, this country is now best known for the 1994 massacre of around 800 000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, who were hacked, burned and shot to death in 100 days of state-sponsored killings.Tourism officials face an uphill struggle convincing foreigners to visit.History aside and even though Rwanda is stable now, it is in Africa’s turbulent Great Lakes region, where conflict still shakes neighbouring countries.”We spend a lot of money and have to do a lot of marketing in international tourism trade fairs,” Rosette Rugamba, director general of Rwanda Office of Tourism and National Parks, said.”We must go out there and tell the world that it is no longer genocide, that’s a thing of the past – we are looking forward to the future and we are unfolding our country.”A mountainous land in the heart of Africa split by the Great Rift Valley and dominated by a mountain range which runs from north to south, Rwanda is dubbed “the land of a thousand hills.”The climate is that of an eternal spring, neither too hot nor too cold.As well as picturesque lakes, there are three game-rich national parks, including Akagera which is home to zebras and giraffes as well as elephants.Nyungwe Park is the only natural rainforest on a mountainous landscape left in the region, and is home to chimpanzees.The country’s most popular park, however, is the northern Volcanoes National Park, where mountain gorillas live in misty rainforests near smouldering volcanoes.This is what made Rwanda famous before the killings.A 1988 film, “Gorillas in the Mist”, revealed the tiny nation to the world and was based on the work of primate researcher Dian Fossey, who studied the animals in the 1960s.Over the past decade, Rwanda’s gorilla population has risen by 10 per cent despite incursions into the park by armed rebels, disease and poaching.Tourist officials say 354 of the world’s most endangered gorillas live in the park – almost half the remaining total.To see the gorillas, which live 2,5 km above sea level with some roaming as high as 4,5 km, visitors trek along tiny muddy jungle trails across rugged mountain slopes covered in bamboo, moss and orchid-covered tree stumps.”Gorilla tracking in Rwanda is not only about the mountain gorillas, it’s about enjoying fresh air, it’s about enjoying the different landscape that you come across,” Rugamba said.Hundreds of visitors hand over US$375 each every month to see the gorillas, giving the government a powerful new incentive to protect them.Some 45 000 tourists visited Rwandan parks last year, including foreigners and nationals.Some 11 000 foreigners saw the gorillas.The highest number of tourists before the 1994 genocide was in 1989, when some 23 000 people admired the parks.Rugamba said there was an 18 per cent increase in foreign tourists last year, many from the United States and Europe.Tourism has become Rwanda’s third source of foreign income after tea and coffee exports, taking in US$10 million last year.It is targeting US$100 million in foreign earnings by 2010.The country came second in Africa after Morocco for promoting tourism at the ITB tourism fair in Berlin in March.- Nampa-Reuters”Mutware, Mutware, wake up!” several villagers cry out, eager to please the tourists who have come to see the elephant.But it takes several hours and some cassava flour and leaves to make Mutware move.Villagers say the elephant is tired after a long night of feeding on their crops.Mutware’s bathing spot, Lake Ihema, in Rwanda’s eastern Akagera Park, is just one of the attractions some 25 000 foreign tourists visited last year in tiny Rwanda.For many people, this country is now best known for the 1994 massacre of around 800 000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, who were hacked, burned and shot to death in 100 days of state-sponsored killings.Tourism officials face an uphill struggle convincing foreigners to visit.History aside and even though Rwanda is stable now, it is in Africa’s turbulent Great Lakes region, where conflict still shakes neighbouring countries.”We spend a lot of money and have to do a lot of marketing in international tourism trade fairs,” Rosette Rugamba, director general of Rwanda Office of Tourism and National Parks, said.”We must go out there and tell the world that it is no longer genocide, that’s a thing of the past – we are looking forward to the future and we are unfolding our country.”A mountainous land in the heart of Africa split by the Great Rift Valley and dominated by a mountain range which runs from north to south, Rwanda is dubbed “the land of a thousand hills.”The climate is that of an eternal spring, neither too hot nor too cold.As well as picturesque lakes, there are three game-rich national parks, including Akagera which is home to zebras and giraffes as well as elephants.Nyungwe Park is the only natural rainforest on a mountainous landscape left in the region, and is home to chimpanzees.The country’s most popular park, however, is the northern Volcanoes National Park, where mountain gorillas live in misty rainforests near smouldering volcanoes.This is what made Rwanda famous before the killings.A 1988 film, “Gorillas in the Mist”, revealed the tiny nation to the world and was based on the work of primate researcher Dian Fossey, who studied the animals in the 1960s.Over the past decade, Rwanda’s gorilla population has risen by 10 per cent despite incursions into the park by armed rebels, disease and poaching.Tourist officials say 354 of the world’s most endangered gorillas live in the park – almost half the remaining total.To see the gorillas, which live 2,5 km above sea level with some roaming as high as 4,5 km, visitors trek along tiny muddy jungle trails across rugged mountain slopes covered in bamboo, moss and orchid-covered tree stumps.”Gorilla tracking in Rwanda is not only about the mountain gorillas, it’s about enjoying fresh air, it’s about enjoying the different landscape that you come across,” Rugamba said.Hundreds of visitors hand over US$375 each every month to see the gorillas, giving the government a powerful new incentive to protect them.Some 45 000 tourists visited Rwandan parks last year, including foreigners and nationals.Some 11 000 foreigners saw the gorillas.The highest number of tourists before the 1994 genocide was in 1989, when some 23 000 people admired the parks.Rugamba said there was an 18 per cent increase in foreign tourists last year, many from the United States and Europe.Tourism has become Rwanda’s third source of foreign income after tea and coffee exports, taking in US$10 million last year.It is targeting US$100 million in foreign earnings by 2010.The country came second in Africa after Morocco for promoting tourism at the ITB tourism fair in Berlin in March.- Nampa-Reuters