KIGALI, RWANDA - Rwanda Office of Tourism and National Parks (ORTPN) last year in December unveiled Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda’s third and largest park.
Nyungwe which was a game reserve from the 1930s until 2004 covers a total area of 1,019 square kilometres and the largest Afro-montane forest in East and Central Africa.
The park is home to 13 types of primates including chimpanzees and constitutes 20% of Africa’s primate species. It is also famous for having over 250 different bird species, 161 known orchids and a place where one can see a troop of 400 colombus monkeys in one area.
The inauguration of the park comes to boost tourism which is the country’s number one foreign exchange earner. It is estimated that it will generate Rwf214million (US$396,296) this year and contribute close to 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
By November this year, 987,280 visitors had visited Rwanda out of whom 4,060 had visited Nyungwe Park and of these, 3,780 were foreign visitors.
The tourism sector is targeting 15,000 tourists by 2012 and some measures such as improving signage in and around the park, construction of lodging facilities, introduction of a canopy walk and an interpretation centre have been put in place to meet the targets.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is sponsoring Destination Nyungwe, a three-year project worth $5.5 million that supports ecotourism development, bio-diversity conservation and public health.
The global environment facility, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project is also funding Protected Area Biodiversity to the tune of $5.4million for both Nyungwe and Virunga national parks.
The government is estimating to generate $168million of revenue from tourism by 2012. This will account for 5.6% of GDP and 4.5% employment for those involved in the sector.
On top of this Rwanda is doing well in gorilla tracking safaris of Parc de volcanoes in Ruhengeri in the northern part of the country bordering Uganda.
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