Welcome Muzungu are the melody soft, tender words that hit your eardrums as you watch the jolly smiling face of the 60 year old mother of four, a farmer turned tour guide as she welcomes her tourists.
In her eyes lies a great ambition of conquer despite the fact she never saw a classroom, a determination that saw her and her fellow farmers set up a tourism company to tap the tourism potential around their area Mayange in Bugesera district.
“I used to fear whites because I thought I cannot talk to them, “said Suzana Nyiranzabandora adding, “but since we came together as a community to set up a tourism company I have been able to learn how to communicate in English.”
Millions of rural people are expected to shake off poverty through village-themed tourism integrating agriculture with industrial production and the service sector.
The community around Mayange sector in Bugesera district came together to set up the Mayange tourism company which utilizes the ecotourism around the sector and the district and provides incomes for the shareholders.
“I have been able to earn income for my family and am now proud that I own a house because of this tourism initiative we started,” she added.
Nyiranzabandora like other members find refuge in tourism after farming as not faring well due to the climatic conditions in the Mayange sector that is characterized by prolonged dry spells as well as low soil fertility.
“Stakeholders are assured of sustainable incomes from tourism activities,” Egide Ntakirutimana head of the Mayange tourism company.
The tourism company is one of the few tourism initiatives started by communities to earn incomes from the budding tourism sector that still ranks as the country’s leading foreign exchange earner.
There is optimism that such emerging private sector initiatives will bolster domestic tourism which is still fragile and under government plans to boost but also discovering new more tour destinations across the country.
Louis Rwagaju, the mayor of Bugesera district says that tourism is part of the anticipated income generating activities, adding the district is looking at creating more infrastructure towards tourism destinations to easy access.
He also noted that village-themed tourism has great growth potential and will continue to help improve farmers’ livelihoods while integrating agriculture with industrial production and the service sector in rural areas,
“Our contribution as a district we will continue to extend roads, electricity and water to the tourism destinations,” Rwagaju added.
Bugesera and Mayange sector in particular provides an excellent view and nice landscape for nature walks and the lake Cyohoha shore known for having a variety of plant species.
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