Private tech entrepreneurs, tour and travel agencies have decided among other stakeholders in the tourism industry that digital tourism is the latest solution that will help the tourism sector recover from the COVI-19 impacts.
They discussed emerging opportunities and new technologies that are needed to revamp the sector that was most affected by the pandemic during an ambitious tourism and hospitality online meeting this week-end.
Participants included Kigali tech developer Eric Niyongabo.
Niyongabo said it was necessary to create a one-stop platform to have access to all tourism business offers on the platform he worked on under Covid-19 lockdown.
“This idea can help to manage all tourism activities and to sell from one point. Such that if you have an event or competition happening like Miss Rwanda or Tour of Rwanda, it is visible to all. We need to communicate this opportunity to customers as a block,” Niyongabo said.
In Niyongabo ‘s idea, this is a more integrated platform-which can be compared closely with the types of Alibaba.com, or call it a kind of booking com, which would also provide tourist navigation on all Rwandan tourism sites.
He said he is developing an application for Germain Rwibutso that will help tourists in trip planning to avoid canceling trips before they even arrive in Rwanda.
“We are developing an automated system that considers the budget interests of tourists. The App will do everything for them in terms of planning and take the hustle off their back. Once a tourist schedule is chosen, we do the rest (like hotel booking car hiring for them),” Rwibutso explained.
Moving ahead with digital tourism would take more innovation for some software developers, and use existing infrastructure to draw more local tourists than international tourists.
For example, as a matter of digital creativity, Amani Samuel said he has developed a digital system that makes tour destinations more engaging and attracts online consumers with the potential to boost domestic tourism.
“We have all welcomed the Kigali city tour bus as a domestic tourism booster. But the experience can be made more compelling by use of a high quality 3Dimension (3D) model depicting how the place looked in the past.
Basically, the bus would be equipped with VR headsets and while tourists are exploring the first phase of the tour which is the ancient Kigali itinerary, they would be presented with an immersive 3D model replica of the ancient place as a way to enrich the experience and let them see how much change has been made so far.
Despite the difficulty of accessing ancient archives on Kigali Region, Amani said that they are already remodeling ancient buildings and sites in Rwanda that can be visited, thus taking a visit to the table is a “ancient” concept of Rwanda or a peek into past history.
Adding to this, the technology application company Kigali 360 says they are making virtual tours and street views for visitors to explore Rwanda in all (360 degree) angles on the phone and computer.
“It’s a street view technology that can make one virtually walk the street as if they were there. A prototype is in place already being tested. We have also introduced a live guide tours feature to communicate with the tourists so as to bridge the gap of distance and time,” said Patrick Karangwa the CEO of Kigali360.
Meanwhile Go3D, a new Kenyan investment in Rwanda is introducing the concept of 3D miniatures of memorable places in Rwanda that will give visitors something durable to take home but also build jobs for printing and sales.
Ever Binamungu, Ajili Africa ‘s CEO, said he’s only working on a specifically built package for locals, allowing them to plan family trips in collaboration with famous destinations in Rwanda within a limited budget.
“We will launch next week and it’s what we are working on now. We are targeting only locals and we have been waiting for the upcountry trips to be open,” Binamungu said.
Belise Kaliza the Chief Tourism Officer at Rwanda Development Board (RDB) said that the tourism industry needs such ideas more than ever.
“We need to move to digital tourism as the new way of traveling and communicating. We are also going to focus on domestic tourism of which we will soon, this week or next week launch a new campaign product,” Kaliza said
To enable a recovery in the tourism and hospitality sector, Kaliza said Rwanda has put aside $50million to allow sector players to recover from the Covid-19 crisis but also as a springboard to create new digital initiatives in the sector.
Below are some wonderful pictures of Rwanda:
