Musanze: Tourism Sector players strive for Covid-19 recovery despite few challenges

By Elias Hakizimana.

When Covid-19 pandemic broke out in Rwanda mid-March 2020, tourism sector was one of the most affected sectors.

With measures to defeat the pandemic and for economic recovery, many Tour Operators are making strides to rebuild the sector despite such a tough experience.

Greg Bakunzi, Chairman and Founder of Red Rocks Initiative, a tour destination organization that focuses on domestic tourism in Nyakinama sector, Musanze district testifies how they are working to respond to the effects of the pandemic to revive operations.

Red Rocks is one of Africa’s specialized companies in cultural and community tourism services located in Musanze District.

“During Covid-19 pandemic which brought various prevention guidelines, tourism was affected and many of activities were halted as no movements were allowed.  Trying to adapt to the situation, we planned some cultural daily and weekly activities for tourism in the community,” Says Bakunzi. 

Bakunzi says the company has not yet fully recovered from the impacts of the pandemic in terms of revenues as most of the clients they used to have  were from abroad yet some borders are not yet fully open.

“The recovery journey is a step by step. Our tourism emphasizes on revenues generated from foreign tourists and some boarders are still closed. Furthermore, not all people can fly. We communicate effectively to the clients with plans to come in the near future as the country recovers from the pandemic.” Bakunzi says requesting the country to ease passengers’ movements at the boarders to help the sector recover. 

Innocent Twagirimana, the vice-chairperson of Gorilla Guardian Village also named Ibyiwacu Cultural Village in Kinigi sector says they partner with the government to be able to recover from the impacts of the pandemic but the results have not yet reached hundred percent as the movements of tourists went down.

“There is a gap comparing to the pre-pandemic situation. Our development is going backward due to the decrease of foreign tourists but it is not too bad comparing to the periods of the lockdowns imposed to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Few tourists are coming in compliance with the measures to contain the spread of the pandemic,” Twagirimana says.

Ibyiwacu Cultural village provides different services to the tourists where they come and enjoy the culture and heritage of Rwanda.

Recovery requires a target

Twagirimana says that people must have a clear target while striving for recovery from the impacts of the pandemic.

“First and foremost, we help our employees to be financially sustained by giving them a monthly salary. Secondly, we partner with the volcano parks and the local government to preserve the national park where we participate in preventing animals from feeding on citizens’ crops as well as compensating those whose properties are damaged by the animals, ” He adds.

He says that there is a need for joint efforts to attain the recovery objectives without relying only on the foreign tourists’ revenues. 

He appreciates the intervention of Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in terms of revenue sharing scheme.

Speaking to Peter Bagirishya, the Executive Secretary and Acting Mayor of Musanze District where the visited tour operators are located, The Inspirer learnt that the district is conducting advocacy to avail enough recovery funds to support affected touristic businesses.

“We also observe those challenges among tour operators but we cannot change the cabinet resolutions to contain the spread of the pandemic, what I can tell them is to be patient and wait for further resolutions. We can see many need the fund to recover but we are doing advocacy. The district itself was affected and relies on taxes, which we cannot get if people’s businesses went down,” Bagirishya tells The Inspirer in an interview.

He affirms that around seven hotels in the district got finance from national recovery fund.

“In this regard, we are in not bad way as we first support those who applied before,” he says.

Rwanda’s efforts in reviving tourism sector is part of EAC $57.8 million plan for tourism recovery to offer a road map for the tourism business to continue amidst the oscillating Covid-19 situation.

Before Covid-19, Tourism and the Hospitality sector was home to 142,000 jobs.

Government is about to rollout next phase of national recovery fund to help more businesses recover and reinstate laid off workers into their jobs.

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