Hotel rooms increase by 23 percent

The future of Rwanda’s tourism industry looks brighter as records shows a 23 percent increased in the number of hotel rooms. Statistics from the tourism office in the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) show that the country has 4,225 hotel rooms compared to 3,438 registered at the end of last year. This means that the more accommodation for the ever growing number of tourists coming to Rwanda. The Deputy CEO in charge of Tourism and Conservation at RDB, Rosette Chantal Rugamba attributed the increased in rooms to hotel renovation, extension and construction. “There have been massive renovations and extensions in hotels as they (owner) seek to match the standards,” she added. The renovation is said to include hotel basics for comfort that attract international tourists. “This saw some hotels acquire more rooms while others reduced on their number of rooms in a bid to have more space,” Rugamba explained, citing an example of Gorilla hotels whose room number reduced from 348 to 335 after renovation. She however, said that the expansion of Kigali Serena hotel and Mille Collin have greatly boosted the number of rooms. Tourism is the country’s leading foreign exchange earner over the past few years. The developments come at a time when Rwanda needs about 6,000 rooms by 2012 to accommodate the increasing number of tourists. Ends

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Hotel rooms increase by 23 percent