Visiting gorillas will still require wearing a face mask
The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has announced that tourists will no longer need to show a Covid-19 test certificate before visiting Rwanda National Parks, as was the case since COVID-9 outbreak in Rwanda, March 2020.
This was announced via twitter handle of Rwanda Development Board.
“RDB would like to inform the public that all tourists, including children over 5 years, where applicable, visiting the country’s national parks are no longer required to present a negative COVID-19 test. A face mask will remain mandatory for those visiting primates,” RDB tweeted.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in Rwanda, the Rwanda Development Board established regulations for tourists, including the Covid-19 test and wearing masks, so that the pandemic can’t affect some of the animals in National parks.
The decision to remove Covid-19 tests for tourists comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on May 5 that Covid-19 no longer represents a ‘global health emergency’.
The National Parks of Rwanda often welcome visitors from across the world.
Country’s tourism sector faced a very challenging year (2020) as global tourism and travel fell sharply in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic.
After the Covid-19 slowed down by the end of 2021, Rwanda’s tourism industry recovered very fast.
According to the 2022 RDB annual report, Rwanda welcomed more than 1.1 million international visitors. Of these, the report showed, more than 60 percent equal to 976,000 came from African countries, highlighting the country’s growing popularity as a destination within the continent.
The number of visitors show an increase of 142.4 percent from 2021.
The report shows that Rwanda tourism revenue more than doubled to $ 445million in 2022 from $164million in 2021.
This growth represents a remarkable 89.3 percent recovery compared to pre-Covid-19 pandemic period and the growth in tourism revenue is also above the earlier projected revenues ($350 million) of 2022.
“This substantial increase can be attributed to the global lifting of Covid-19 induced travel restrictions, and increased connectivity by RwandAir, as well as other airlines, specifically to and from Kigali International Airport,” the report reads in part.
Rwanda’s tourism revenues amounted to $498 million in 2019 – before Covid-19 hit in March 2020 but rushed to $121 million in 2020 as per RDB data, which implies a reduction of more than 300 percent.
