Gorilla Tour Fare No Obstacle as U.S. Tourism to Rwanda Doubles
Gorilla Tour Fare No Obstacle as U.S. Tourism to Rwanda Doubles
(Bloomberg) -- Rwanda saw a 114% jump in tourists from the U.S. last year despite doubling gorilla-tracking permit prices to $1,500 each, the country’s top tourism official said.
The East African nation famed for its endangered mountain gorillas sold tickets for $19.2 million last year, compared with $15 million in 2016, when it doubled the cost of a permit, according to the Rwanda Development Board said. The number of permits issued fell by almost a third last year, compared to 2016.
Rwanda is monitoring 329 of the primates in its territory, compared with 256 in 2017, the agency said. There are fewer than 1,000 mountain gorillas left in the world and they can be found only on the Virunga Massif on the border of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
“Visitors from the U.S. were the most lucrative source market, spending an average of $12,000” per person, the RDB’s chief tourism officer, Belise Akaliza, said on Tuesday in an interview in the capital, Kigali. Chinese nationals spent an average of $1,084, the 10th biggest spenders, she said.
Tourism is Rwanda’s biggest foreign-exchange earner and the state is seeking revenue of more than $800 million by 2024 from $438 million in 2017. Income figures for last year are still being prepared, Akaliza said.
Overall tourist numbers increased to 1.71 million visitors last year, it said, from 1.3 million in 2017.
In its annual baby gorilla-naming ceremony known as “Kwita Izina,” Rwanda will give monikers to 25 primates born in the past 12 months.
The event, which seeks to boost awareness of the endangered species and boost conservation efforts, was introduced in 2005 and is usually graced by global personalities who name the gorillas. The nation expects U.S. singer Ne-Yo, supermodel Naomi Campbell, former Manchester United Manager Louis Van Gaal and former Arsenal FC legend Tony Adams at this year’s event on Sept. 6.
As part of its marketing efforts, the RDB in 2018 signed a jersey deal with English Premier League soccer team Arsenal FC to have its “Visit Rwanda” logo feature on players’ left sleeves.
By the end of the first year of the agreement, 50% of the team’s fans considered the African nation a holiday destination, compared with 29% before the deal, according to Akaliza.
To contact the reporter on this story: Saul Butera in Kigali at sbutera2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Malingha at dmalingha@bloomberg.net, Helen Nyambura, Michael Gunn
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