Born and raised in Umutara, Chantal was no less a visitor to Uwinkingi, Nyamagabe District than the Kenyan members of our team, as we collected field data some months back. She was equally awed by the scenic beauty of the area as was Chris, the Kenyan, who vowed work hard and buy a residential plot atop a picturesque, fairy tale hill overlooking Golden Monkey Hotel. His love for Nyamagabe was accentuated even further by the rukwavu nyamachoma (grilled rabbit) at the hotel, which became his only dish all the time we stayed there. 

The case of Chris is understandable, but Chantal, a Rwandan, a stranger in her own country? Yet she is neither alone nor is this strange-but-true fact unique only to Rwanda. Save for Kenya, where ‘mainlanders’ go to Mombasa for holidays, the majority of East Africans are yet to appreciate tourism as a normal leisure and holiday activity within our means and national borders. We return to this shortly. First, the international aspect of CHAN, namely MICE tourism.

MICE tourism

Great kudos to the organisers for spreading the matches across Rwanda. This will have the benefit of visitors (players, fans, officials, journalists) seeing Rwanda beyond Kigali. However, one lesson we are yet to pick is the practical application of MICE tourism in the wider sense. MICE, in tourism jargon, stands for meetings, incentives, conferences and events. It is common with structured international or regional conferences, workshops and seminars.

CHAN, though more in the domain of sports, has elements of MICE which actors and stakeholders in the tourism sector can take advantage of to earn an extra buck, and from such events going forward. Where MICE tourism is fully implemented, there is a pre-event or post-event sightseeing that is integrated in the planning and itinerary of the participants in the event at hand. Israel is among the countries that score highly in this domain. Regardless of its nature, each event has visits to tourist attractions (faith, cultural or otherwise) integrated in the plan. And for sponsored events, it is even catered for in the budget so that participants do not feel the extra cost of sightseeing.

Take the case of CHAN 2016 in Rwanda: a full MICE tourism plan would run thus: upon landing in Kigali, all teams, officials, fans, and journalists visit all the sites of the games in Huye, Rubavu; go gorilla-tracking in Musanze; with the ‘compulsory’ ritual at Nyirangarama; get awe-struck by the intelligent, graceful ‘dancing’ royal cows (Inyambo) in Huye; capture the evolution of Rwanda across centuries in the National Museum in Huye; pick divine blessings from the Kibeho Apparitions Shrine (this is the first and only apparition site in Africa approved and authenticated by the Vatican); experience the glorious morning breeze in Nyamagabe; savour the simple but world-class hospitality at Hajj Enterprises in Nyanza; before each team settling in their respective towns for their games. With such trips integrated in the official sponsorship package of the tournament, it will not weigh onto the individual pockets of the players, officials or journalists. And soccer being what it is today, corporate sponsors would find it worth their money.

Domestic tourism

Our collective guilt of regarding tourism as for the affluent and foreigners stands a chance of being forgiven if we begin with CHAN. For starters, the CHAN organisers would have pulled Kigalians to Huye or Rubavu, if the group in which Amavubi are playing was allocated to either of the two towns, instead of Kigali. This being a competition among national teams and not clubs, chances are that Kigalians will stay in Kigali where the national team, Amavubi is playing from. With live coverage of matches, Rwandan fans from Huye, Rubavu or other upcountry districts, may not travel to Kigali to watch the matches. Thus we are likely to have limited domestic tourism resulting from CHAN.

Beyond CHAN, domestic tourism has great potential building on the existing practices in the Rwanda. Take the natural case of umuganda: what if we were to have inter-district umuganda partnerships, where one district executes an Umuganda Weekend in another district.

Picture this: Saturday January 30, the Rotary Club or Lions Club of Kigali takes the lead in organising Kigalians to do their umuganda in Rusizi District. With corporate or individual participation, the spending by participants will have an impact on the incomes of the Rusizi residents. Our Chantal (along her Rotaract Club), will no longer be stranger in her mother country. Conversely, children from Kamegeri will find inspiration to read harder if they spend their holidays touring factories in Kigali, from their youth-camp tent-hostel on the grounds of College of Business and Economics, Gikondo. Yes. Domestic tourism is within our reach. And there are countless strategies to promote it.

The author is a partner at Peers Consult Kampala and CET Consulting, Kigali.

bukanga@yahoo.com