According to the Rwanda Development Board’s (RDB) annual report, published on the African news agency Ecofin, the tourism sector generated $438 million in revenue in 2017, compared to $404 million the previous year, an increase of 7.76%.
However, this performance is slightly below the government’s revenue targets for the sector for 2017, which were $440 million. It should be noted that Rwanda’s tourism revenues in 2017 were mainly generated by business travellers, who generated the largest share of revenues with 33%, followed by visits with 29%. Holidaymakers accounted for 27% of revenues.
However, Rwanda, which is positioning itself on business tourism, has seen revenues in this tourism segment decline from $47 million in 2016 to $42 million in 2017 (-10.6%). Although the IFEN estimates that its contribution to tourism revenues is expected to increase to $74 million in 2018; noting that Rwanda hosted 169 international meetings in 2017, with 28,308 delegates attending, compared to 23,804 the previous year.
Regarding the origin of travellers, the IFEN report reveals that those from the East African Community generated the highest revenues (25%), followed by Europe (22%) and the rest of Africa (21%), details the same source.