Will tourism scholars help improve the industry?

There are students and academic staff who are under the Association for Tourism and Leisure Education (Atlas) that are meeting in Kigali to discuss ways of improving tourism in Rwanda as well the whole of Africa.

 This is the 8th Atlas meeting and it is being hosted by Rwanda Tourism College (RTUC) and it was officially opened by Rica Rwigamba who is the head of tourism and conservation at Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and she said that the government has a strategic vision plan that covers developing  international tourism,  as well as recognizing particular opportunities  that can be achieved through working on the facilities in general as well as concentrating on marketing the three main assets that the country has got which include the bird watching, mountain gorilla viewing and the national parks.

However, there are other areas that need to be looked at and take good care of  them like the increasing the attraction for business travel and meetings, incentives, congresses and events, commonly known as Mice, these may be good sources of revenue in the near future.

Africa was blessed with a very desirable environment, very friendly people with a very good sense of adaptation over time and space and today governments have come up with a number policies that are intended to help maximize gains from the tourism industry so said while addressing the students. She also added that the debate should contribute towards the creation of a new pattern of appreciating and promoting the values of tourism in Rwanda and the whole of Africa.

There representatives from over 30 countries that have attended this meeting. RTUC does train personnel basing on modules that are competitive and necessary to the world labor market, sharing knowledge and working with well-known researchers and therefore academics ceases to be a choice but an essential so said Callixte Kabera the RTUC rector.

Meanwhile René van der Duim who is the chairperson of Atlas Africa said that tourism growth is no longer in Europe since they have been to all sights. In the same way Rwanda has natural resources that are unique to sale to tourists so that is what it should start marketing now because  very soon gorillas will no longer be an attraction to many tourists. Diversification is very much needed if the country is keep the tourism industry running for years and years Duim added.

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