Research carried out by On The Frontier (OTF) Group shows that internet is the major source of information on MICE tourism Rwanda with 52%.

Other sources of online MICE information on Rwanda are specialized websites (35%), Rwanda embassies (32%), travel agents (31%), travel magazines (29%) and official travel advisory (27%). There are an estimated 1.2billion internet users or more globally. Current forecasts suggest 1.5billion people will have internet access by 2012.

The fact that most MICE tourists consult the internet about their destination country, Rwanda is at the critical moment to heavily invest in infrastructure that will enable web access possible in order to build an online sustainable tourism.

This, however, requires infrastructural development, e-commerce, education and exposure to global practice, global relationships, innovation and vision.

Damian Cook, managing director of E-tourism Africa, an online tourism promoting website says online activity has become habitual and practical, including shopping. Cook says that for the past three years, travel is now the best selling commodity with over US$110 billion turnover in online sales.

He estimates that over 70% of travelers obtain their travel information through online tourism and it increases their means of selecting, booking and buying. He says Africa has accounted for 36million arrivals and US$24billion which is 4% of global tourism. However, an estimated less than 2% of Africa’s total consists of online sales.

Cook explains African content can be difficult to find and access because of lack of e-commerce and inventory. He says South Africa and Egypt which have invested in ICT and allowed e-commerce have started to do some business online.

Because of familiarity with the websites, users have started creating their own content without understanding computer programming. It is expected that users will have created 70% of the content on the web in three years.

However, as information continues to flow on online community, filtering good and bad information becomes more difficult. A practical example is Kenya which was just recovering from an image of terrorist attacks on the US embassy and just entered into post-election violence.

The same applies to Rwanda where her image is being painted dark by the war in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. With negative media spreading the world, it is hard to keep up the good image of a country which directly impacts its tourism sector.

Rwanda’s tourism industry has over the past 14 years been growing with increasing numbers of international tourists compared to locals. The industry is targeting US$148million receipts at the end of this year.

BY,

Deborah Allen,

Gorilla Trekking Safari News Reporter

Kampala Uganda

With effect from January 2009, Kenyans, Tanzanians, Rwandese and people from Burundi will pay UShs5, 000 for adults and UShs2,500 for the children or the equivalents of those sums of money to visit any wildlife gazetted areas in Uganda.

The money will, however, not cover other additional activities like mountaineering, gorilla trekking and chimpanzee habituation experiences amongst other services that may be provided by national parks.

In Uganda, wild life protected areas include Murchison Falls National Park, Lake Mburo National Park, Mgahinga National Park, Kidepo Valley National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park and Kibale National Park amongst others.

Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the body charged with managing the country’s protected areas, undertakes a biennial review of the entry and tourism tariffs with the aim of determining whether the tariffs correspond to the market forces that are in line with those charged by neighboring countries.

Under the new tariff regime, the differences between Ugandans and the other East Africans has been removed and replaced by the category of East Africans under which Ugandans fall.

Children under the age of five years, students from Ugandan schools and honorary wardens will always receive free admissions to the protected areas. Students on educational trips must however carry valid identity cards and a letter from their schools.

In addition to harmonizing tourism in Uganda, the fees charged on East Africans, UWA has offered a 50% discount from the 15th of December 2008 to the 15th of January 2009.

The Executive Director of UWA, Moses Mapesa said they had decided to offer the discount at this time of the year because it falls under school holiday time.

“We have decided to offer this discount because this is when most people are on holiday. We would like it if Ugandans and the East Africans took this opportunity because entry into the national parks is going to be UShs2500 (below $2) for all those people who have residence in the East Africa region,” he said.

Mapesa also said UWA provides annual entry permits to all protected areas for foreign residents and East African residents. An annual permit costs $50 for an individual, $75 for a couple, $100 for a family of four people with children not exceeding 15 years of age and $400 for corporate organizations providing entry for 10 people.

Foreigners resident in Uganda will now pay $20 for adults and the children below 15 years of age will pay $10. The foreign non-residents will, however, pay $30 for adults and $15 for children below 15 years.

“The need to harmonize tourism tariffs in the East African region is what has compelled us to act in this way. We under took the measure after extensive consultations with other stakeholders in the region,” Mapesa said. It is still unclear whether the other East African countries are also going to charge uniform fees to their nationals and the nationals from the other East African states.

The UWA has also increased the tariffs for chimpanzee tracking in Kibale National Park from $70 to $90 for foreign non-residents and from $50 to $70 for foreign residents. Citizens of East African countries will pay UShs60,000.

A single day for the chimpanzee habituation experience which involves spending 12 hours watching the chimpanzees feed, play, care for their young and construct nests will cost foreign non-residents $220, foreign residents $150 while the citizens of East Africa will pay $70.

Foreign non-resident persons are the people who come into East Africa exclusively as tourists and do not have any sort of residences while the foreign residents are the people currently residing in East African as expatriates or otherwise.

Gorilla trekking fees have also increased: tracking permits in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park are now at $500 for the foreign non-residents, $475 for the foreign residents and UShs250,000 for East Africans. Ugandans too will pay Ushs250,000 up from the previous Ushs150,000.

In an attempt to attract more locals into the tourism sector, the UWA is encouraging people by reducing entrance fees this festive season, harmonizing tariffs for East Africans and expanding points of accommodation at most of the major tourist attractions.

“We have made extensions at Kyobe and Pakuba lodges, we have also receives requests to reconstruct Katurumu lodge at Kidepo Valley National Park and Kyambura in Queen Elizabeth is being expanded,” Mapesa said.

By,

Deborah Allen

Gorilla Trekking Safari

Kampala

Rwanda Office of Tourism and National Parks last week unveiled Nyungwe National Park, as Rwanda’s third and largest park. Nyungwe National Park was a game reserve from the 1930s until 2004 covering a total area of 1,019 square kilometers and the largest Afro-montane forest in East and Central Africa.

The park is home to 13 types of primates including chimpanzees and constitutes 20% of Africa’s primate species. It is also famous for having over 250 different bird species, 161 known orchids and a place where one can see a troop of 400 Columbus monkeys in one area.

The inauguration of the park comes to boost tourism which is the country’s number one foreign exchange earner. It is estimated that it will generate Rwf214million (US$396,296) this year and contribute close to 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

By November this year, 987,280 visitors had visited Rwanda out of whom 4,060 had visited Nyungwe Park and of these, 3,780 were foreign visitors.

The tourism sector is targeting 15,000 tourists by 2012 and some measures such as improving signage in and around the park, construction of lodging facilities, introduction of a canopy walk and an interpretation centre have been put in place to meet the targets.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is sponsoring Destination Nyungwe, a three-year project worth $5.5 million that supports eco tourism development, bio-diversity conservation and public health.

The global environment facility, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project is also funding Protected Area Biodiversity to the tune of $5.4million for both Nyungwe and Virunga national parks.

The government is estimating to generate $168million of revenue from tourism by 2012. This will account for 5.6% of GDP and 4.5% employment for those involved in the sector.

By,

Deborah Allen

Gorilla Trekking Safari Uganda

Kampala

Mr. Ignie Igunduura, Manager Public Affairs Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that rising number of both international and local airline frequencies means that more people are now traveling to. The surge also reflects that the capacity Ugandans and expatriates is increasing.

“It is a mark of confidence in our economy and opportunities for investment in various sectors and it is a sign that the aviation industry is growing industry,” Mr. Igunduura told Gorilla trekking safari in an interview at the first anniversary of Air Uganda, in Kampala, on Friday.

The increasing flights and passenger traffic are also piling pressure on the transport industry to offer better air travel services and develop the under developed aerodromes within the country. “We need to maintain the airport facilities at the level they are and also make them better so that we can have more tourists coming in,” Igunduura stressed.

He also lauded Air Uganda for historic performance in its first year by hitting the 75,000 mark. “Air Uganda has recorded some very rare figures of passenger growth,” he said. As government aims to strengthen the role of Entebbe International Airport, it has also announced that it will give Air Uganda the national designation once held by Uganda Airlines.

This means that the airline will be given permission to have the national flag colours splashed on its aircrafts like Kenya Airways and South African Airways.

“We are now planning, so that you can spread your wings wider. We want to see you going beyond this continent. We want to see you acquiring new aircrafts,” Mr. Igunduura told the managers of Air Uganda at the ceremony.

Reported by,

Deborah Allen

Gorilla Trekking Safari

Kampala

The one-year project expected to benefit about 250 farmers is being implemented by Emesco development foundation, a local Non-Governmental organization that operates in nine of the 13 sub counties that form Kibale district.

Emesco provides bee hives, honey buckets, smokers, basic hive management training and harvesting veils to the beneficiary farmers. Emily Kugonza, Emesco’s Executive Director, said Bees Abroad, is dedicated to alleviating poverty in developing countries.

Speaking during a monitoring exercise of the beneficiary farmers in Kagadi Sub-County recently, Kugonza said farmers had been trained on how to make bee hives using improvised local materials like eucalyptus sticks, mud and cow dung.

Mary Kasarubayo, a resident of Nyakabingo village said she had received training from Emesco’s staff and also benefited from the bee hives, buckets and the smokers.

Kasarubayo, who started the business 5 years ago with minimal guidance from extension workers, believes that bee keeping will earn her more money if she puts in practice what she learnt.

Kasarubayo noted that before training, almost all the honey she harvested was for home consumption. She says only a little was sold to petty traders.

Reported by

Deborah Allen

Gorilla trekking Safari

Kampala

He called for more funding to the sector so as to fight poverty. “Agriculture in Uganda is implemented in remote areas with hardly any infrastructure and it is susceptible to weather vagaries.

About 70% of Ugandans are involved in subsistence farming yet this is the sector that would have moved the masses out of poverty,” the minister said. The theme for the conference, attended by over 200 agricultural experts from east and southern Africa, was: “Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) - the Future for Sustainable Agricultural

Development.” The minister hailed the International Fund for Agricultural development (IFAD), a UN agency for investing $454m (about sh771.8b) in agricultural activities. He urged the Government to develop agricultural policies, improve infrastructure, train farmers and invest in agro-processing and research.

“The Government can no longer expect things to just happen in the agricultural sector. It has to play an active role in promoting value-addition and agro-processing,” he stressed. Fred Rubarema, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, called for the improvement of the agricultural sector so as to eradicate poverty.

He asked the Government to address the challenges that small holder farmers face, as well as support upcoming large scale farmers. The participants called upon African governments to implement the Maputo Declaration of 2003, which calls upon governments to increase funding to the agricultural sector to at least 10% of their budgets.

IFAD Africa director Ides de Willibois promised to continue supporting more agricultural activities.

Reported By

Allen Deborah

Gorilla trekking Safari

Kampala

The earnings stood at KSh34.5 billion compared to the KSh49.2 billion registered over the same period last year.” the post election violence and the after effects have adversely affected revenues to the sector, we lost some Sh14.7 billion as compared to what was achieved over the same period last year,” said Ong’ong’a during the release of the sectors third quarter results.

This is despite an estimated KSh350 million having been used in recovery efforts mostly on marketing and advertising in key source markets such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Kenya Tourist Board Managing Director Dr. Ong’ong’a Achieng said the recovery efforts will go on until the end of 2009 with the hope that the government will honour its pledge to increase funding to the sector by another Sh1 billion this financial year.

“The recovery programmes are expected to run until the end of 2009 and we expect through this process to reach the 2007 levels,” said Ong’ong’a. “There is little we can do about the delay in disbursing the promised KSh1 billion, but we are trying our best to work with the little we have. We understand the government has quite a lot on its shoulder but still hope the money will come by,” he added.

The results reveal a 30 per cent drop in consolidated tourist arrivals for the last nine months with the figure standing at 939,791 compared to 1.3 million over the same period last year. This was however a six per cent edge improvement against the second quarter.

The global tourism market has been seriously battered by the prevailing high fuel prices that heightened the cost of travel against a background of unstable financial markets and rising inflation levels.

“High fuel prices for a significant part of the year increased the cost of air travel reducing the demand of long haul destinations from the major source markets. These factors also reduced the level of importance of travel in terms of priorities extent,” he said. In terms of international arrivals by air and sea, the sector recorded a 36.6 per cent decline standing at 496,056 compared to the 782, 690 registered over the same period last year.

Almost all the arrival categories registered a major decline compared to 2007 with the holiday segment dipping by 55 per cent while the business segment registered a 20.9 per cent drop. Cross boarder arrivals closed at 443,735 compared to 565,191 during the same period in 2007.

This reflects a 21.5 per cent drop but a 7.5 per cent gain compared to the lat quarter. The hotel sub sector experienced low bed occupancy in the first half of this year. Whereas the sub sector enjoyed a 75 per cent occupancy in the first half of 2007, such occupancies dropped to between 35-40 per cent this year.

The top performing markets for the first half of 2007 were United Kingdom, 42,763, USA 25,315, Italy 13,105 Germany 11,239 tourists while India was fifth with 7,938 arrivals. These were followed by France and Eastern Europe especially Russia which registered a 4.6 per cent increase. In the emerging markets segment, Japan which was the leading source market registered a 49 per cent decline from 10,507 arrivals last year to 5,351 arrivals in the first half of 2008.

Ong’ong’a said partnerships with airlines such as Emirates and Virgin Atlantic has increased tourist arrivals from the far eastern markets of Japan, Korea and china. The Chinese source market registered a 21 per cent decline in the first half of 2008.

KTB chairman, Jakes Grieves Cook said if Barrack Obama win the US elections next week could see the travel advisories issued by the US government rescinded which could critically boost tourism earnings.

By Deborah Allen

Gorilla trekking safari news reporter

Kampala

Despite the upsurge in the total number of local projects, the overall investment value from the projects however fell from $359million (101 projects) in the previous quarter to just $297 million in the just concluded quarter.

Releasing the quarterly report last week, Dr. Maggie Kigozi, Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) executive director said the long awaited Tamoil pipeline project has received an injection of $56 million for the project but challenges of sorting out land tracks on which the proposed oil pipeline is expected to pass continues to bog down the project.The pipeline project is way behind schedule and was expected to be complete by November 2007.

The quarterly report indicates that the construction sector took the lead by attracting planned investment of $87 million followed by the financial services and energy with planned investment of $64 million and $56 million respectively. Overall, 76 new projects were registered in the said period with total value of $297m.

India was closest to Uganda in terms of new investment value with 11 projects while 8 projects are from the United Kingdom and Singapore with two projects altogether planned to invest $59 million. If everything goes according to plan, Uganda will attract a total of 6,774 new jobs from the new investments.

UIA board chairman, Mr. Patrick Bitature reiterated that despite delays by tycoon Al wa leed to commence construction of the Shimon Hotel project, the project remains on course because of assurances and commitment made by Sheik Al wa leed, also the world’s fifth richest man.

In the long term, Uganda Investment Authority is targeting at creating over 350,000 jobs and registering about 2,000 projects by 2012.The renewed momentum by UIA follows the launch in October 23, 2007 of a new five year strategic plan.

Deborah Allen

Gorilla trekking safari news reporter

Kampala

]]> http://www.gorillatrekkingsafari.com/blog/uncategorized/uganda%e2%80%99s-top-list-of-investors/feed/ http://www.gorillatrekkingsafari.com/blog/uncategorized/hotel-des-mille-collines-under-reconstruction-works/ http://www.gorillatrekkingsafari.com/blog/uncategorized/hotel-des-mille-collines-under-reconstruction-works/#comments Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:15:23 +0000 admin http://www.gorillatrekkingsafari.com/blog/?p=9 Hotel des Mille Collines, a renowned hotel in the Hotel Rwanda Movie has earmarked $5million for renovation of the hotel facilities and outlook.

The hotel has been given undisclosed amount of money as a loan by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), payable in ten years.

The renovations announced in the hotel’s premise last week by the hotel officials, will see the hotel change its outlook and purchase new interior design facilities. PIRARD, a Rwandan construction company won the tender to refurbish the hotel.

The Hotel’s director of Administration and Finance, Mr. Jean de Dieu Mbarushimana said they would close shop in the first three weeks of October for demolition period to take place, and open towards end of October for business as usual. This will see one wing of the hotel done while another one will be worked upon after two months.

Hotel des Mille Collines has 113 rooms. It is owned 89% by Mikcor Investment Holdings which purchased shares owned by Sabena, a Belgium flight company in 2005 to the tune of $3.4million.The hotel is supplied by 30 local business people and employs more than 155 employees.

By Deborah Allen

Gorilla trekking safari News Reporter

Kampala

“We realize that adults want more choices in drinks, especially soft drinks and customers are getting more sophisticated in their selection of soft drinks,” Gerald Mahinda, the EABL Group chief executive officer, said;

This was at the launch of the soft drink at the Pyramids Casino in Kampala. “Alvaro is designed and targets young adults who are exciting and adventurous,” he said.

Patricia Ithau, the Uganda Breweries managing director, said Uganda was the second African country where the drink was being introduced.

Alvaro was introduced onto the Kenyan market a year ago.

Mahinda said sh900m was invested in the project. He said Alvaro would be available in two flavours, pineapple and pears.

Mahinda said the soft drink would be introduced in Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi soon.

By Deborah Allen

Gorilla Trekking Safari News Reporter

Kampala