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The Rwanda Development Board’s Tourism and Conservation Department will grade at least 30 more hotels this year, following the start of the exercise last year. Using the East African Community’s guidelines for grading and classification of hotels and other hospitality businesses, RDB is reportedly committed to play their part in ensuring that standards and quality of tourism establishments in Rwanda are uplifted to match if not exceed those of their neighbors in the East African community.

Presently only the Kigali Serena Hotel and the Nyungwe Forest Lodge by DubaiWorld hold the coveted 5-star ranking, while a number of other Kigali hotels were graded as 4-star properties, as was the Lake Kivu Serena. A number of other establishments have requested to be put on the list for upcoming inspections to ensure they can also publicly announce and display their star rating once the exercise is complete.

Those already graded will, however, also undergo a fresh audit to ensure that standards established at first inspection will have been maintained to ensure continued high ranking, also giving others the opportunity to attain a further star, should improvement made over the past two years warrant such a decision.

“When you were here last time we discussed the very issue of standards. Rwanda is a niche destination, still largely focused on gorilla trekking. The new products launched over the past two or three years, however, have attracted a lot of attention. Hiking is now a regular activity in Nyungwe Forest, Gishwati Forest, and along the Congo-Nile Trail. Birding has become an important additional niche.

“It is now important to raise our standards so when visitors come to Rwanda as an extension of their Kenya or Tanzania holiday they get the best possible quality, in guides, in infrastructure, and, of course, in hospitality. There is always room to improve, but we have made it our mission to accomplish certain goals sooner rather than later. When the new Marriott will open, it will compete at level terms with the Serena, and that is good for the country as it offers another 5-star choice.

“Our MICE business is growing strongly, too, and that segment of the market in particular is really very much interested in quality facilities. Rwanda is going places,” said a source in Kigali working at a hotel but, for not being the official company spokesperson had to opt for an off-the-record comment.

MTN Group Ltd. (MTN)’s Rwandan unit lost market share in the fourth quarter to its main competitor, Tigo Rwanda, the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) said. MTN Rwanda’s share stood at 65 percent compared with 72 percent a year earlier, while Tigo’s grew to 35 percent from 19 percent, the Kigali-based regulator said in a report yesterday. MTN had 2.89 million subscribers in the East African country as of December, while Tigo had 1.55 million, it said.

“Our affordable tariff structure has clearly played a major part in this achievement,” Tigo Chief Executive Officer Diego Camberos said in a phone interview yesterday. MTN Rwanda Chief Marketing Officer Yvonne Makolo didn’t respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

Rwanda’s mobile-phone penetration rate may increase to 60 percent this year after Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BHARTI) begins operating in the East African country, the regulator said in January. The proportion of the Rwandan population with a mobile phone rose to 41.6 percent in December from 41.3 percent in November.

MTN Rwanda began operations in 1998, while Tigo, which is owned by Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular SA (MICC), obtained its license in 2008.

A multimedia academy, The Africa Digital Multimedia Academy the first in Africa, will commence lectures next week in Kigali.

This was revealed yesterday, by the Director General of WDA, Jerome Gasana, during a press conference held at the academy premises in Nyarugenge District, Kigali city.

He said WDA, in collaboration with Pixel Corps has already recruited 20 students for the first intake. Gasana noted that those who were recruited are already engaged in the multimedia industry.

“Over 300 people applied for this training,” Gasana said.

He added that after three months, the academy will recruit another batch of students. Initially the school was supposed to have started operating before the end of February, but according to Gasana, it was delayed because they were still procuring equipment for the academy.

He noted that the school aims to equip Rwandans with multimedia skills, therefore unlocking the entire industry and encouraging innovation and creativity.

The Government, through the WDA, has so far spent Rwf 100 million on the Academy. Various international companies have shown interest in providing more financial support to the school.

Speaking to The New Times, Christopher Marler, the Program Manager at the Academy, the Pixel Corps are working with WDA to develop a curriculum and train instructors for the school.

“The teaching equipment, which we have brought here, is as good as those used in the film production and Photoshop academies in the USA. In addition, part of our responsibility is also to connect the academy to other academies in the same field”.

The ministry of trade and industry (MINICOM) in a move to develop tourism in Rwanda is encouraging hotel owners, tours and travel companies to hire graduates with enough knowledge in tourism and related fields.  

The director of splendid hotel in Muhanga town Jacqueline Mukagatare said it is easy to get graduates in tourism but at times non graduates do the work much better than graduates whereby she would prefer to train non graduates.

She requests for more training in every district because the previous training was held in Butare yet they work in Muhanga district.

On the other hand, the owner of Hotel Dayenu in Nyanza said graduates in tourism whom they employ do not outweigh any better those who are not graduates apart from knowing international languages.

The head of developing tourism in Rwanda development board Faustin Karasira did not agree with the arguments as he said it all depend with hotel management, experience and location of the hotel which might lead to offering good or bad service.   He gave an example of where the hotel owner controls all sections of the hotel.

He continued to say that low salaries and not training workers is among the things which cause poor service delivery and that the reason why hotel owners, tour and travel companies do not appreciate the work done by graduates in tourism is because the graduates are tasked with roles outside their field of study and are not cheap compared to un professional ones.

Rwanda being a country of a thousand hills has got many beautiful things including rivers and lakes, mountain Gorillas, wild animals and many others that attract tourists from all over the world. Rwanda has three national parks which are; Akagera National Park in Eastern province, Nyungwe National Park in Western Province and Volcano National Park in Northern Province.

On 19^th January 2012,we visited MGENI ADVENTURES LTD at prince House, Remera-Gasabo district a company that has dealt in Tours and Safaris, Car rentals, Airport pick up and drop off and Hotel reservations for two years but with branches in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Ndoli Darius, Mgeni Adventures Managing Director who is one of the founders and Chairman of EATN (East African Tourism Network) has 11 years of experience in Tourism in addition to attending various International Trade fairs in USA, Europe and Asia as he told the reporter.

Highlighting challenges faced, Darius indicated lack of enough accommodation especially in Akagera national park as the main problem.

“Visiting the Park requires tourists to be there by 6:00am yet it’s a long journey from Kigali to that place. So you need to spend a night around there to be on time” There is one hotel in Akagera which is very expensive and without enough accommodation in addition to poor service delivery, adds Darius.

He continues to say that compared to other national parks in the neighboring countries, Akagera is not well developed yet it has variety to be seen: different bird species, lakes, crocodiles, Hippos among others. RDB-tourism department knows about the problem of accommodation but no quick effort has been made by the government to solve the problem.

In abid to improve tourism industry in Rwanda, Darius request the government to think about Akagera like how other national parks of Rwanda are taken care of or privatize it to Investors to better develop it for the good of the country and residents.

Also, there is a need for Government Tourism Information Centres in different places of Rwanda  because tour companies have to go looking for tourists in trade fairs yet if the GTIC was there, tourists would access easily tour operators and vice versa.

Darius further said that for the local community to benefit from the national park, they should be sent to school or sensitized on how they can work together in cooperatives and make crafts that attract tourists. He advised people in the same business to love and respect their profession because tourism requires honesty, in other words they shouldn’t promise what they can’t offer.