Abstract:
The Rwandan government’s Economic Development and Poverty Reduction
S4trategy II (EDPRS 2, 2013-2018) highlights enhancement of connectivity and linkages within
the country’s economy as one of the priority areas for economic transformation. In the
highlights, emphasis is put on the need for deepening the integration of key value chains of the
economy. After a comprehensive analysis of Rwanda’s global competitiveness, tourism was
identified as one of the key sectors that would spur economic development in the country.
Important as it is, however, the linkage of this sector to the rest of the economy was found to
be weak and hence compromises on its ability to deliver on certain targets as expected. This
paper thus identifies opportunities as well as the bottlenecks within tourism value chains in
Rwanda and recommends possible solutions. A questionnaire survey was used to obtain data
related to visitor expenditure, targeting visitors at land border points and Kigali International
airport. Focus group discussions were also conducted in gathering data on value chains
analysis and identification of intervention programs that would remove any bottlenecks in the
system.
