20100131
allafrica

Kampala — Chantal Rugamba, the deputy chief executive officer in charge of tourism and conservation at the Rwanda development board, said tourism is expected to increase by 7 percent. "This translates into visitor numbers increasing from 698,952 registered in 2009, to 750,000 in 2010, with revenue increasing from $174m to $187m in 2010," she added.

Speaking at a phone interview, Rugamba said tourism went down in 2009 not only due to the world economic crisis, but also the instability in the DRCongo which borders the volcanoes national park.

This has affected tourism activities in the first quarter of the year. The park is home to mountain gorillas.

Rugamba blamed the shortage to lack of diversification of tourism activities and the dependency on gorilla tracking.

Diversification would have accommodated tourists who wished to visit other sites, she added.

Rugamba said the financial crisis played an insignificant role in the decrease of tourism activities in the country.

However, the downturn affected potential investors like Dubai world which was investing over $20m dollars in Rwanda's tourism sector but pulled out at last minute citing the global crisis.