Rwanda’s private sector that is working with the ministry of tourism and hospitality are up against an increase in the prices of gorilla permits by 50% something that they say might put their businesses at great risk. This has come after the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) made it officially known to all tour operators that the gorilla permits were to increase by the mentioned percentage come 1st June 2012 excluding those booked earlier.
With the changes in prices, the foreign non-residents will have to pay $750 from the $500 they are currently paying to watch the gorillas; the foreigners who are residents in Rwanda will pay$375 as opposed to the $250 while the Rwanda nationals will be paying $50 from $33 in that order. Nevertheless, the Rwanda private sector says that the instant implement of this resolution will definitely bring about serious and long-term consequences to the private sector as well as the image of the country at large.
The mountains gorillas earn Rwanda a percentage of almost 90% of the income collected from the parks and it therefore Rwanda’s top tourism income generating activity. They claim that the decision to increase the prices was made without consulting them and therefore are not happy about the way they came to this decision in spite of our endeavor to discuss with them on this matter.
“There are already tough responses from some of our associates which make more scared that we ill have to face serious consequences in the long run” so says a representative of the private sector from a statement signed by the chairman of tourism chamber of Rwanda’s Private Sector Federation (PSF) released on January, 28th. In 2010, Rwanda received up to $200 million from tourism which was 14% more of that received in 2009 and then in 2011, the industry received $251million.
This improvement is attributed to an increase in the number of gorillas and the tourists’ increase in the demand for watching gorillas. John Gara who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RDB while he was making the announcement, he said they are ready to maintain the conserved areas so that they are ale to the wildlife protect in our national parks. The number of mountain gorillas improved by 26.3 per cent with in the last seven years and by 3.7% every year that is according to the statistics of April 2010.
