Rwanda’s mountain gorillas have hit social media platforms with Instagram and Facebook accounts solely created for each gorilla family. The Gorilla Gram, as part of Visit Rwanda initiative, is an innovative way to have the gorilla families as the first wild animals in the world that have an active social media presence. According to Rwanda Development Board (RDB), this will help with vital research, management, and protection of the famed primates which bring the largest contribution to the country’s tourism revenue. Michaella Rugwizangoga, Chief Tourism Officer, RDB, said that this will enable digital-savvy travellers to be part of the citizen science approach of conservation “by using Instagram to share content that is very useful for our day-to-day monitoring of the endangered primates.” “Each visitor now has the opportunity to play an important role in ensuring that the species continue to be protected and will prosper and thrive in Volcanoes National Park.” This means that tourists will get to share their own experiences and photos on the platforms by adding optionally provided tags that help rangers, researchers, and monitoring teams to keep track of the groups and individuals via aggregation systems that store the photos in smart galleries. Rwanda is home to over a third of the remaining populations of mountain gorillas in the world, and there have been intentional efforts invested in conserving and protecting them such that over recent decades, the population has grown to over 1,063 individuals, up from just 480 in 2010. . There are currently 12 families and each will have its social media pages. They include; Agashya, Amahoro, Hirwa, Igisha, Isimbi, Kwisanga, Kwitonda, Muhoza, Noheli, Sabyinyo, Susa and Umubano This has greatly contributed to revenue generation from the tourism sector as a country with a service-led economy. For instance, revenue generated from gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park amounted to $11 million (approx. Rwf11 billion) within the first six months of 2022. This is as the economy recovers from the shocks of Covid-19 that has immensely affected tourism sector with tight measures that restricted global travel. Revenue from VNP dropped from $21.9 million in 2019 to $5.9 million in 2020 and $6 million in 2021. However, the government continues to accelerate the recovery of the sector through different measures including the recently resumed in-person Kwita Izina ceremony earlier in September. With the new Gorilla Gram, daily content from park visitors will also be available to the public alongside links to support mountain gorilla populations and habitat conservation or to plan a trip to visit Rwanda, according to RDB. Maybe we will have gorilla influencers across other platforms like TikTok or Snapchat in the near future, who knows?
