Kigali, Rwanda (TAN): Gorilla tracking in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park earned the country 25% more revenue in 2018 compared to the earlier year, according to the Rwanda Development Board (RDB).
As per media reports, the East African country earned revenue worth USD19.2 million by selling 15,132 gorilla permits during the year. The revenue went up after cost of permits were doubled to USD1500 per person per day. Before the increase, sale of 22,219 tickets raked in USD15 million in revenue in 2016. On the other hand, the number of permits issued went down by almost a third vis-à-vis 2016.
Despite the surge in prices, tourists from the United States grew 114% last year, media reports said. American luxury tourists, along with those from China, Australia and Nigeria constituted the highest number of visitors that reportedly grew eight per cent to 1.7 million last year from 1.3 million in 2017.
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“Visitors from the U.S. were the most lucrative source market, spending an average of USD12,000,” RDB’s Chief Tourism Officer, Belise Kariza was quoted by media reports as saying.
Chinese nationals spent an average of USD1,084, ranking tenth, while Nigerians, spending an average of USD1,498, were the top African spenders, reports said.
“This is proof that our (tourism) strategy to target this market is bearing fruit,” Kariza added.
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Tourists visiting the country mostly go to the Volcanoes National Park for gorilla tracking, or the other national parks such as the Akagera National Park and the Nyungwe National Park, that together generated USD20 million in terms of revenue. The Akagera National Park was the most visited one with 51,724 visitors in 2018, up 17% from 2017. Nyungwe National Park welcomed 15, 665 visitors, an increase of 9%, during the same period.
A Bloomberg report said there are less than 1000 mountain gorillas left on the planet and that they can only be found on the Virunga Massif on the border of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
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Rwanda practises an annual baby gorilla-naming ceremony that it calls ‘Kwita Izina’ to raise awareness of the endangered species and increase conservation initiatives. Introduced in 2005, the event sees global celebrities name the gorillas.
