Opinion
By Innocent Cyiza
Rwanda was awarded the
"Best of the Best Exhibitor Award and also emerged as the Best
Continental Exhibitor" at the just concluded ITB (Internationale
Tourismus Börse) in Berlin, Germany. This is not the first time for
Rwanda travel and tour companies to receive such awards.
The Government has inreasingly been investing in tourism sector to
boost revenues towards the country's economic development. So many more
touristic attractions have been identified to add on existing ones,
formerly dominated by national parks flora and fauna, some of whose
inhabitants are among rare species in the world.
It is, important, however for Rwanda to venture into new markets rather than stick to traditional ones.
For example, the Moscow International Travel and Tourism (MITT)
exhibition that took place from 18th and ended on 21st March is another
event that Rwanda should not have missed. The 2015 event marks MITT's
22nd edition and is among the five biggest exhibitions worldwide,
according to tourism industry specialists.
Would Rwanda tourism exhibitors go beyond Berlin? The idea behind
this article is to introduce to Rwandan tourism industrialists the
Moscow Annual Tourism Exhibition so that they plan to participate in the
event in the future.
The event could be another opportunity for Rwanda travel and tour
companies to showcase the potential that Rwanda tourism offers to tap
into the Russian tourism market and thus contribute to the national
sector development agenda and the national economy.
This year, the MITT attracted three thousand exhibitors from 203
countries and regions of the world. During 4 days, MITT 2014 was visited
by 37,000 people. In 2015, as predicted by the organizers, the increase
in the number of visitors may have reached 5-9 per cent.
MITT is Russia's most prestigious travel and tourism tradeshow and,
as mentioned above, one of the top five travel events in the world.
Annually, the event goes from strength to strength, and showcases an
excess of 2,000 travel companies.
Seventy-five per cent of exhibitors represent international
destinations - a figure which has seen constant growth as more
international destinations value Russia as a very big market for
tourism.
Among other expectations, the fair attracted 2,056 exhibitors, 198
countries and regions; 37,436 unique visitors - 74 per cent trade
visitors; covered 57, 737 sqm (gross) exhibition space over 9 halls, and
was
Because of the current difficult economic and geopolitical
conditions, tourism market is undergoing significant transformation.
According to the Federal Agency for Tourism, in 2014 the number of
Russian tourists traveling abroad decreased by about 15-20 per cent. But
this does not mean Rwanda can't tap from the 75 per cent to 80 per cent
still actively traveling.
Rwandan tourism companies should benefit from such a big opportunity
for information exchanges about tourism investment opportunities as well
as touristic attractions. Rwanda's rich history, culture, diversity and
endless wildlife experiences would also be showcased to draw more
Russians to visit Rwanda.
Rwanda's tourism sector continued to grow in the past one year
cementing its position as one of the key sources of foreign exchange for
the country. For the year 2014, the sector registered a nine percentage
increase in the number of visitors to Rwanda.
These numbers grew from 1.14 million visitors to 1.2 million
visitors, also accounting for an increase in revenue from US $296.4m to
US$303m. If Rwanda could tap a portion of the vast Russian tourism
market, the revenue from tourism could increase significantly.
The writer is the Communications Officer Rwandan Embassy in the Russian Federation
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