Tourism Rwanda’s top earner, with $80m in half year

By KEZIO-MUSOKE DAVID of The East African

"Rwanda’s revenue from tourism has increased by 15 per cent to record $80 million in the just six months.

This figure has surpassed the $68 million targeted for the entire 2008.
According to officials of the Rwanda Office of Tourism and National Parks — the agency that regulates the tourism industry and the country’s national parks — this improvement in tourism revenue officially makes the industry the number one foreign exchange earner, contributing about 3.7 per cent to the national gross domestic product.

The $80 million earned is a 22 per cent increase on the same period last year, and the tourism agency also envisages that for the remaining months of this year, tourism earnings will peak at $148 million and visitors arrivals will reach 884,220.

Rwanda recorded 408,482 tourists in the period under review, a 3.4 per cent increase from last year’s figure of 390,000 foreign visitors."

Complete story can be found at "Tourism Rwanda’s top earner, with $80m in half year"

Category: Rwanda + Tourism + Economy