Ariella Kageruka is the Head of Tourism and Conservation Department, Rwanda Development Board. Appointed in 2019, Ariella Kageruka led the tourism department team to the 2025 World Travel Market, London, where as a panelist at the “Travel Marketing Summit,” disclosed that “most of the investors that we have today come initially to Rwanda, first as tourists. They have understood this call that we are embracing them if they want to come on this journey and development of building our nation.” Ariella Kageruka spoke with Deba Uwadiae, publisher of New Americans magazine on how tourism has become the highest foreign exchange earner for  Rwanda.

WTM London

The World Travel Market, London was wonderful. This is one of the most important key-source markets for our tourism. It is actually ranked fourth. It has been a great platform for a couple of years. We have used this platform as an opportunity to maintain contacts and update our partners in this market and also establishing new contacts with new partners who would be willing to partner with us, with our private sectors to continue selling and position Rwanda as an ideal destination for leisure and business travel.

Tourism

Tourism industry is one of the most important industries in the country. It is actually the first foreign currency earner for the country. It’s been an industry that has been enabling so much. It’s been creating jobs for people, for the youths and creating opportunities for investment. Most importantly its revenues trickle down to communities that live mostly close to our national parks.

Conservation

The tourism industry has also been a great beneficiary and supporter of conservation because our tourism industry is centered on conservation and community empowerment.

Marketing

We will continue to use innovative methods to entice people to continue to come and discover Rwanda. First of all, we educate people, we enable them with tools and information that allow them to partner with us and, to sell Rwanda; and also, to even visit Rwanda because we are engaging both consumers and trade and media to share our stories to our audience.

Engage

We are engaging with people that are innovative in the ways they share about destinations. There are more platforms that are using technology-driven mechanisms that we are looking at partnering with, while leveraging existing partnerships to visit Rwanda and also invest.

Visit Rwanda

A visit to Rwanda is a visit that leaves great impact. Every tourist in Rwanda is essentially a citizen scientist because all the revenues that we get from tourism and the national parks are contributing directly to people’s livelihood in communities where we inject 10% every year of that revenue to community projects. In the last five years we have been able to support, through the scheme, over 1,000 projects.  

Support the New Americans magazine to continue to serve our community with precise news that affect the new American, immigrant and refugee community. https://paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=8LHFS78NRNJJY&source=url