Trade has played ‘central’ role in boosting Rwanda visitation, says tourist board

The trade has played a “central” role in increasing visitor numbers to Rwanda, according to the country’s tourist board.

 

Ariella Kageruka, head of tourism and conservation at Visit Rwanda, told Aspire that the “trade has been central to [the country’s] development” and has played a “very important” role in boosting visitor numbers.

 

Speaking at World Travel Market in London, Kageruka said the UK is Rwanda’s fourth-most-important source market and visitation from the country “has been growing”.

 

She said: “2024 was amazing, The UK arrivals reached over 16,000 people. We also got about $30 million in revenue from that segment last year.”

 

This contributed to a total of $650 million generated from tourism in 2024, marking a significant increase from pre-pandemic levels, with $500 million recorded in total revenue for 2019.

 

Kageruka said revenue figures for 2025 aren’t yet available, but “it’s all looking good and on the right trajectory”.

 

She also said the country hopes to grow by 10% year on year in the future.

 

This boost in visitor numbers is partly down to an increase in demand for “purpose-led travel”, according to Kageruka.

 

“Since Covid, we’ve seen that travellers are more and more sophisticated – they have an interest and they are more curious.”

 

She emphasised that, for a “purpose-driven” destination like Rwanda, it’s important to work with agents who are “specialists”.

 

“We’ve been working on providing them [agents] with the right tools and information to be able to promote Rwanda. We’re also facilitating direct engagement between our trade and our DMCs so we can make it seamless and make it very easy to connect,” she said.

 

“One of the other tools we’ve been using to attract the trade has been to host them. It’s always very different when you haven’t been to a destination.”

 

Kageruka said Visit Rwanda has a “multi-pronged” strategy, but the trade is at “the centre” of it.

 

Picture: Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda

Credit: Shutterstock/Wirestock Creators