Tourism fetched $438 million for Rwanda in 2017, reflecting an increase by $34 million compared to the 2016.
the 2017 tourism revenues constituted almost 50% of the country’s services exports.
The report of Rwanda Development Board (RDB) released on Tuesday indicates that national parks received 94,000 visitors in 2017, putting $18.7 million in the national coffers.
Volcanoes National Park accounted for 38% of all parks’ visits and fetched over 90% of the revenues. Akagera and Nyungwe national parks received 44,000 and 14,000 visitors, cashing in $1 million and $500,000 respectively.
International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), ranked Rwanda in 2016 as Africa’s 3rd leading MICE tourism destination.
MICE stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions.
RDB annual report also showed that Rwanda recorded growth in investments registered in 2017. Export values and volumes also increased.
Registered 137 investment commitments amounted to $1.67 billion and are expected to generate 37,548 jobs. Most attracted were transformative investments in logistics, tourism, agro-processing, health and mining.
Overall exports fetched about $2 billion and grew by 36% compared to 2016 while merchandise exports grew by 58%. At least 100 export market destinations were served through 81 different products in 2017. Tourism exports grew by 12% from 2016-2017.
The report shows that the country’s population size was 11.3 million with $729 GDP per capita.
