In beed to boost tourism in Rwanda, the aviation renovate of Kamembe Airport located Western Province of the country. The project is estimated to cost Rwf5.1 billion and will start in November. The project will see the airport’s runway extended to 2.2 kilometres from 1.5 kilometres to also accommodate big aircrafts, as well as help decongest the airport.According to the refurbishment officials; the officials will help spur tourism as well as ease inland travel and enhance passenger safety

Advantages of reconstructing the airport
The major reason for expanding the capacity of the airport is to facilitate tourism. The country largely relies on Rwanda safaris as one of the main income earners, therefore making upcountry tourist sites easily accessible for tourists will attract more travelers to Rwanda.
Rwanda is a land locked country and for the improvement of her economy requires air transport to facilitate growth.”

The project works involve resurfacing the runway, upgrading the taxiway, apron and airfield marking to make the airport secure and attractive.
The supervisory part of the project will be by STUDI, a Tunisian company in partnership with Gasabo 3D Limited, and is expected to cost about $495,000 (about Rwf349 million), according to RCAA.

Unaffordable to miss, is the popular ‘Kwita Izina’ ceremony which is a local dialect of the ‘naming’ ceremony that is often held in June every year with the intention of celebrating the country’s conservation efforts to save the Mountain gorilla. This ceremony was officially named in 2007 and has since then become an exciting part of Rwanda’s Tourism and Conservation calendar.If you would like to witness this ceremony, June would be the best time to schedule your gorilla trekking in Rwanda any chosen year.

The highlight of this naming ceremony was earmarked by the naming of the twins that were born on 3rd Feb 2011 to one Kabatwa. These twins were named at Kinigi together with other 20 baby gorillas in June of the same year and one was named Isangano meaning ‘Meeting place’ while the other Isango meaning ‘appointment’.

The 2013 naming ceremony drew a number of world figures including the Secretary General of World Tourism Organization-Rifai Taleb and 12 baby gorillas plus a new gorilla family were named. Below are their profiles and their name givers.

1. Ikigega (a store for treasures) a female, was born on 2nd August 2012 to Umwe of Susa gorilla family and named by the Executive Director of the Kenya Land Conservation Trust and Wildlife Direct, and chairman of the Friends of Nairobi National Park- Dr. Paula Kahumbu.

2. Ubukerarugendo (Tourism) male by sex and born on 11th August 2012 to Tuyishime of Susa family was named by the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization – Mr Rifai Taleb.

3. Inyungura (Addition), a female, was born on 1st Dec 2012 to Poppy of Karisimbi B family and was named by the Managing Director of ZESCO Limited, Zambia- Mr Cyprian Chitundu.

4. Ganza (Always Dominating), a male born of Umutungo of Sabyinyo family on 29th March 2013 and was named by the Nigerian award winning actor- Mr. Ramsey Tokunbo Nouah Jr.

5. Isimbi (Shining Pearl) a female, born on 22nd September 2012 to Karisimbi of the Amahoro group was named by the Director of Sales and Marketing – Middle East- African Continent, Marriott Hotels International, Inc¬¬¬- Mr. Paul Dalgleish.

6. Icyamamare Maktub (Rising Star) also a male born on 21st December 2012 to Ahazaza of Agashya family was named by Ms. Lieke van Lexmond – Dutch model, actress and TV presenter and Mr. Mark van Eeuwin – Dutch actor, TV and film producer.

7. Ingamiya (Camel), a male born on 14th October 2012 to Tegereza of Ntambara family was named by the Speaker of the Senate of Kenya- Ekwe Ethuro.

8. Icyororo (Fertile), a male was born on 3rd July 2012 to Isaro of Isabukuru family and was named by an American economist and Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University- Jeffrey David Sachs.

9. Imigano (Bamboo) a male, was born to Bukima of Isabukuru family on 15th April 2013 and was named by Pinto Ignatius.

10. Iraje (New comer) a female, was born on 30th April 2013 to Umuhanga of Karisimbi A family and named by the GRASP (Great Apes’ Survival Partnership) Coordinator at UNEP- Doug Cress.

11. Fasha (to help) a male, born of Muganga of the Isabukuru family on 21st May 2013, was named by Mukeshimana M. Louise

12. Agasore (Little Man), a male was born on 18th June 2013 to Mukama of the Pablo family and named by the Ambassador of Japan to Rwanda- H.E. Kazuya Ogawa.

13. Newly Formed Family was named Karisimbi (natural beauty) by the American actor Isaiah Washington IV and his family.

You need not to wait any longer for you can also take part in this ‘world moving’ event for this year which will be on 21st June in case you book your safari with us. Come and meet with the global figures as you name the baby gorillas and celebrate the efforts of those behind their survival.

A lot lies undiscovered in this small gem known as the land of a thousand hills awaiting you to discover life in a home away from home.

In conclusion, gorilla naming ceremony is an interesting event you shouldn’t miss on your Rwanda safari. Book now and take part in this life changing experience that takes place once a year.

When Charlene Jendry, an American conservationist, first Rwanda tour to Akagera National Park in Rwanda in 1990, Lions were the prime tourist attractions there. While staying at Gabiro Guest House, a magnificent safari lodge right in the middle of the jungle, Jendry enjoyed a spectacular African safari before flying back to the USA.

On her return in 1995, Jendry received an image far different from the Akagera she had left 5 years back. Things seemed to have been a mess with nearly no single lion sighted in day’s game drives. The big cats’ number had greatly diminished and very few were remaining but were also very elusive. By the end of 2000, lions in Akagera Game Park had become more of a myth or legend than a reality.

What went wrong?
Following the massive return of the Tutsi refugees after the restoration of peace in the country after the 1994 genocide that had seen many leave the country for their lives, there wasn’t enough land to accommodate the large families of pastoral Tutsi which increased demand for land that fueled conflicts between the park authorities and the local community, as the community started encroaching on the park land for agriculture.

As the land for cultivation and rearing cattle failed to sustain the increasing numbers of people and livestock, the government was forced to cut off a huge chunk of Akagera national park and give it to farmers and herders. This limited the wild animals’ range and increased the conflicts between man and them as they were often hunted down for trespassing on the farm land as well as killing them for food.

Being the kings of the jungle and not willing to give up their freedom and territory, Lions fought back, attacking livestock and people which provoked cattle keepers to poison the carcasses which these lions could eat and die hence decimating their numbers until they lived no more.
By the year 2000, these lions were no more which frustrated tourists and reduced Rwanda from a game destination to primate / gorilla destination hence reducing on the visitor duration in the country. Rwanda considered importing lions from South Africa, but the efforts proved futile. In 2010 the government installed a 1.8 high electric fence on a 110-kilometer area of Akagera park, worth Rwf $2.7 billion ($4 million).
However, with the disappearance of these big cats, the grazer population sprouted immensely with several species of antelopes as well as buffalos and elephants roaming in the savanna plains of Akagera.

This year, Kenya came to an agreement with Rwanda to give them a pride of 8 lions though amidst criticism from some conservation bodies demanding Rwanda’s explanation about the extinction of their indigenous lions and prove their commitment to protect them this time. It is not yet clear about when the lions are finding their way to Rwanda and when the Akagera’s glory will be fully restored.

Meanwhile, Akagera Park Manager, Gruner assured the public that once the lions arrive, they will be kept in a boomer for monitoring before being released into the wild with a GPS tracking collar. “The park should be able to know the location of every lion all the time,” says Gruner.
He is also confident that once the lions are back, they will not be lost again since the park is now well secured with an electric fence strong enough to keep the lions with in the park and limit their conflicts with the herders. A study conducted also proved that the lions will survive in Akagera’s savanna terrain.

Among the many rules that come with meeting the gorillas in Virunga national Park, the hardest one to keep is cracking a smile when u finally meet these incredible creatures. As you get close, all the rules start going through your head – go quietly and don’t forget — no grinning or staring. And no chewing or drinking – whispers a friend. This makes the adrenaline rise mixed with the excitement of meeting the gorillas. Before entering the forest in search for the gorillas, you are briefed about what how to act during the whole trekking adventure.

As you approach, the guide makes a strange protracted- cough gorilla calls: “Hummmph, hmmmm.” But unfortunately, you see nothing and continue with the gorilla trek. The Virunga forest crushes you from all sides as you trek – some times it rains and soaks you to the underwear. Your guide should be able to slash at wild foliage.

Virunga National Park comprises of 4 gorillas families and if trekking gorillas in Congo you will be assigned to any of these gorilla groups.
In summary, gorillas are typically Zen about our zealous paparazzi behavior, but there are things you must never do in their presence. Do not, for instance, make terrible noises or lurch toward them unexpectedly. Don’t stare at the silverback; it’s rude. If he looks at you, drop your eyes, crouch and back away in submission. Don’t eat or drink near the gorillas.

Basically, things can go horribly wrong if you start yelling, thrashing, grinning or eyeballing the silverback while gnawing on a Kind bar and guzzling rehydration salts. Gorillas are gentle herbivores and would prefer not to engage, but if you threaten the family, one clobber and you’re out.

And, technically, you can smile, but it’s best not to flash your choppers too broadly, as it might indicate you wish to fight. Think more Mona Lisa than Julia Roberts.

Worth the trek

Congolese are the most hopeful people I’ve ever met, and that optimism stretches to time and distance. Augustin stops and makes the throat-clearing sound again, which, in silverback parlance means, “Greetings, Supreme Leader. I’m over here. I’m an unabashed coward and have no intention of harming you or yours.” It is, I suppose, like the origin of the human handshake.

This time, however, our guide receives a deeper, more authentic response from an actual gorilla, meaning, “I hear you. You may approach.” I collapse beside him and there, Humba, the head silverback, is no more than 20 feet from me. Instantly, every muddy, ponderous jungle step was worth it.

Only 880 mountain gorillas remain in the world, and 210 of those live in Virunga, some habituated to humans, others still very wild. It’s still raining fiercely, and the 400-pound silverback sits, arms crossed, looking as irritated as I’d be if it poured on my nest at nap time. I snap on the surgical mask I’ve been given to ensure no spread of human disease and move forward.

A baby gorilla bounds over, coming within several feet of me, as curious as a human toddler. Yaya shoos him off, not wanting the youngster to become too human habituated. To my right, an adolescent male comes rolling through the bush, commando style, and makes a lunging grab for my camera. I’m preparing to go mano a mano with a gorilla over my Canon, but again Yaya steps in and he backs off. Like the stereotypical teen male, he’s just a boisterous poser. In an effort to save face, he tenderly picks up the 8-month-old infant and swings him on a vine.

Next month about 8 lions from Kenya will make the journey to the “Land of a thousand hills,” restoring the realm of the “Lion King.” and will be put to Akagera National Park in Rwanda

Indigenous lion populations in and around Akagera national park were wiped out in the past, by herders trying to protect their livestock and other villagers fearing raids, often using poison hence inflicting a cruel death on the big cats.

Today African Parks have upgraded the electric fence by adding both height as well as a bottom element to make sure that the lions will neither be able to jump the fence nor try to crawl through below the fence.

Bringing the king of the jungle back to Rwanda next month will provide tourists with an added attraction of now being able to see four of the big five with only the rhinos missing from the checklist. This will give Rwanda a good competitive edge over her neighbors.

Local tourism operators in Kigali expressed their appreciation that the Kenyan government has allowed the Kenya Wildlife Service to send a pride of lions to Rwanda, attributing this to the warm and friendly relations between the two countries, which together with Uganda last year formed the “Coalition of the Willing” united by common goals to improve infrastructure, increase trade, and work hand in hand on a number of other areas including security cooperation.

This year’s world tourism day celebrations will be held in Guadalajara Mexico on 27th September 2014 under a theme “Tourism and community development” that looks at empowering local communities through tourism to achieve sustainable development all over the world. It was in September 1979 in Torremolinos, Spain when the third session of UNWTO general assembly decided to establish world tourism day beginning in 1980. It comes at the end of high season in the northern hemisphere and beginning of the season in the southern hemisphere.

Tourism today is at the forefront of the world’s most community development empowering sectors through implementing community based projects in order to enhance the well being of the local communities and conserve the environment. As the most widely celebrated global day for tourism, it represents a unique opportunity to highlight the steps taken so far by the international tourism to empower sustainable community development through tourism. The theme is also an opportunity to ensure that international tourism continues to play a role in tackling the major community-based tourism challenges of our time.

Clean community-based tourism solutions are bringing the sector’s poaching and encroachment acts down, protecting local environments and communities, creating jobs and economic opportunities. But more must be done. With International tourist arrivals growth by 5% in 2013 to 1.087 billion and international tourism generated US$ 1.4 trillion in export earnings,international tourist arrivals of between 4% and 4.5% are expected to travel in 2014, (UNWTO world tourism barometer report 2014).

As we are celebrating world tourism day, Tourism plays an increasingly vital role in developing communities in Uganda. These include both tangible benefits like job creation, revenue and less tangible like quality of life and community effects. This strategy is used by tourism stakeholders to encourage participation by local communities that broadens the scope of service delivery in the tourism sector. Community tourism makes people aware of the value of their culture and heritage, food and lifestyle and how to convert them into income generating projects that helps the communities to get involved in small business management, environmental awareness, product development and marketing.

This is the type of tourism in which residents provide basic services to tourists like accommodation. By doing this, locals earn income and tourists get a chance to experience and discover the traditional local culture, wildlife and habitats. These locals become aware of the commercial and social values which foster conservation of these resources.

In Uganda, Uganda wildlife authority (UWA) recognizes local communities as key stakeholders in wildlife conservation projects.UWA allows local communities to share protected area resources and involve them in planning and management of these resources.

A number of activities have been implemented by UWA such as conservation education awareness where low cost accommodation facilities have been constructed in lake Mburo, Murchison falls, Queen Elizabeth and Mount Elgon national parks to facilitate the school children and organized groups to learn and view wildlife.

UWA allows local communities to access resources such as medicinal herbs, papyrus and vine used to make hand crafts, fish, bamboo, bee hives and water during dry spells. There is Revenue sharing between UWA and the local communities where 20% of the revenue is given out to the local communities.
There is Batwa trail that allow visitors to experience the tradition of Batwa that earns them revenue and employment as well as the surrounding communities. However there are other cultural encounters by park’s surrounding communities through village walks to visit home stead’s and to experience vibrant local cultural dances and craft shops in all national parks owned by private groups.

Uganda Community Tourism Association (UCOTA) also empowers local communities in sustainable development through community tourism by ensuring that revenue stay back in local communities and also involve them in planning and decision making for tourism development.

Lodges like Marasa, Sanctuary Gorilla Forest Camp, Mahogany Spring and Tour Operators have also excelled in supporting community Tourism initiatives. While waiting for tourism day celebrations, Uganda has tried to develop tourism through community empowerment that has necessitated the wildlife and local communities to live together without conflicts. All these have been done to improve the well being of the local people, develop the national economy while conserving the natural environment.

Gorilla Permit Booking Procedures

Rwanda, Congo, Uganda are all homes of mountain gorillas – a rare travel and tourism attraction picking up the attention of many travelers lately. Watching and visiting gorillas has become big business and large foreign exchange earner as explained in this story adventure and very different from mass tourism. Hutu rebels of Rwanda let to the Bwindi massacre in 1999, gorilla tourism dropped and the resultant funding dropped from the mountain gorilla conservationists. There was an uphill struggle to reorganize it, but people now travel again travel for gorilla safaris to both the Congo, Rwanda and to Bwindi national park. Generally, the experience of gorilla trekking is a remarkable and strenuous adventure, considering visitors have to hike on foot through thick vegetation, given the nature of the forests and terrain.

Visitors trek gorillas through Bamboo and hardwoods couple with thick undergrowth to prevent entry to this “place of darkness.” Protection from human ingress has been assured in the past, but encroachment by settlements is always a modern hazard. Fortunately, many of the Ugandans gain appreciably from tourist visits, while the 2nd major population of mountain gorillas live over the DRC border which is just a few km away. The Virunga National Park is 25km away.

Bwindi impenetrable national park was established in 1991, (following a 1932 designation as Crown forest reserves) a remarkable biodiverse region within 3 nations became the major focus of mountain gorilla and forest conservation. With the heritage of Leakey and Fossey, these, “Gorillas in the Mist,” have been taken to everybody’s hearts. 120 mammal species, 220 butterflies, 27 frogs, and 350 birds, chameleons and others also flock together within the trees (163 species), other flowering plants (1000 spp) and ferns (104spp.) Because of the extreme isolation, many of these species are endemics. The fish are hardly studied yet. Colobus monkeys, chimpanzee, elephant, giant forest frogs, hornbills and turacos can be seen near the gorilla groups that are habituated to human “interference,” near Nkuringo and Buhoma.

If you want to visit the mountain gorilla in Uganda, it all begins with application for a gorilla permit. A permit can be acquired from either booking through a tour operator or the Uganda Wildlife Authority. This control ensures the gentle giants aren’t over-visited, or exposed to any human infections. The Uganda Wildlife Authority gains great revenue from the operation, so you could be lucky to avoid the rainy season, avoid car-sickness and get a comfortable lodge or tent. You will be dissuading locals from using the species for bushmeat or frightening them away to use the forest land. The visit will be brief, uncomfortable and quite costly, but some have paid a higher price.

Conference tourism is a newly introduced tourism product which has made Rwanda an exceptional destination. With only a few days to the naming ceremony of Gorillas in Rwanda (Kwita Izina), the country is proud to have received about US $49 million in this year from only meetings and conferences and still hopes to triple the figure by 2016. With the country hosting the recently concluded African Development Bank meeting, Rwanda’s head of Tourism and Conservation, Ambassador Yamina Karitanyi is confident that Rwanda is becoming the top attraction for conference Tourism in the region.

On 1st July this year, the weeklong festival for the Kwita Izina ceremony will climax with the real naming activity for 18 baby gorillas under the theme “A decade of Conserving, Empowering and Growing”. During this ceremony, there will be recognition of different individuals, organizations and nations for their commendable efforts towards the conservation of the Mountain Gorilla. The 10th Kwita Izina anniversary ceremony comes at a time when Rwanda is celebrating its visible achievements. The ceremony has been credited for having greatly contributed to the increase in the number of Gorillas by 26.3% since 2003. The ceremony draws attention of the Gorilla conservation to the entire world hence sourcing enough support for the gorilla conservation.

While addressing a press conference at the Rwanda Development Board offices, Karitanyi noted that Rwanda safaris will continue to promote Meeting, Incentive, Conference and Event ( MICE) since the country has enough facilities to handle them. He remarked that with other attractions around, it is not surprising that the Tourism sector is the leading foreign exchange earner in the country.
Last year, over 1,137,000 visitors visited the country generating over $294million compared to the $62million collected in 2000. This tremendous growth has been attributed to the peace and security in the country, a variety of attractions and more so the coming up of Rwanda air that extends services to West Africa hence easing access to Rwanda for foreigners.

Due to the very close genetic relationship between humans and gorillas, the gorillas are very vulnerable to many of man’s infectious diseases that affect people – though human being have invented immunity managing for even the smallest of sniffles can have tragic consequences if exposed to the gorillas.

The International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) and Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network (WFEN) have worked together to develop the new tool – known as Gorilla Friendly Pledge – that outlines ten simple things tourists can do before, during and after their gorilla safari, which rules are set to protect visitors and mountain gorillas alike.

The launch of Gorilla Friendly Pledge coincides with peak gorilla trekking tourist season and Kwita Izina, the annual baby gorilla naming ceremony taking place in Rwanda on 1 July. By publishing the gorilla safaris guidelines, Gorilla Friendly Pledge will help safeguard gorillas by minimizing the risk of disease transmission and preventing illness or behavioral change of the gorillas as a result of exposure to people.

“Conscientious mountain gorilla tourism has contributed to one of the world’s true conservation success stories. By demonstrating that gorillas and their forest habitat can provide real and lasting benefits to people and economies, local communities have become their guardians,” states Anna Behm Masozera, Director of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, a coalition between Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and WWF.

“But we cannot be complacent and now is the time to better equip tourists with the tools to become gorilla guardians as well. This Pledge aims to empower tourists visiting any of the gorilla subspecies in the forests across Africa with information as to the regulations in place for gorilla tourism to make these often once-in-a-lifetime experiences even more valuable – to their experience and to the gorillas.”

The content of the Pledge originates from existing guidelines and regulations defined by the leading experts on great gorillas and outlined in the IUCN’s Best Practice Guidelines for Great Ape Tourism.

A visit to Rwanda is not worthwhile without an encounter with the most revered and endangered man’s evolutionary cousin that is now sheltered in the Volcanoes national park. It is here (Rwanda) that the first attempts to save the Mountain Gorilla started with the American zoologist – Dian Fossey pioneering it throughout her 18-year study of the life of this ill-fated ape. Track gorillas in the volcanoes national park which is the oldest national park in Africa, gazetted in 1925 purposely for the conservation of the Mountain Gorilla and visit the tomb of Dian Fossey (whose enthusiastic efforts of saving the Mountain Gorilla from extinction claimed her life in 1985) on the following day as you support the conservation project of this endangered creature. There are now 10 habituated Gorilla groups for gorilla trekking in Rwanda, which are easier to access as compared to the ones of the neighboring countries like Uganda in regards to their proximity from the respective capital cities.

As you are still astonished by these gentle creature of Volcanoes national park, the Akagera park awaits you with a lot to offer, its plethora of wildlife including buffalos, elephants, lions among others, an array of Bird species both the resident and migratory birds are yet another attraction that will bestow upon you remarkable reminiscence that will forever sweep you away from home. It’s no wonder that the Akagera park was the venue for the National celebrations of the Migratory birds’ day under the theme “Destination Flyways – Migratory Birds and Tourism” which took place on the 10th of May this year.

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