BUJUMBURA July 9th (ABP) – More than 200 young members of the project called “Tembera Burundi (Visit Burundi)”, supported by the Startup phoenix and the National Tourism Office, proceeded on Wednesday July 7, at the hotel in City, at the official launch of the national campaign to promote tourism in Burundi, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Salvator Ntahomenyereye, who represented the Ministry of Commerce, Transport, Industry and Tourism, indicated that the “Visit Burundi” project aims to promote tourism in Burundi. He specified that the Ministry in charge of Tourism has accepted, through the General Directorate of Tourism, to integrate that project into its programs because those in charge of the ministry support and encourage the spirit of collaboration among young people.
Mr. Ntahomenyereye recalled that the National Development Plan (PND) 2018-2027 indicates that “tourism is a good factor of economic growth which makes it possible to generate foreign currency by contributing up to 2% of the gross domestic product, through spillover effects on other economic activities “such as transport, agribusiness, crafts, banking and employment.
For his part, the CEO of Startup, who is the founding initiator of the “Visit Burundi” project, Mr. Brice Niyonzima, specified that this project aims to develop the sustainable tourism economy in Burundi, with components national, regional and international based on innovation, service excellence, meaningful participation and partnerships.
To that end, he said that the general objective of this project is to develop a national strategy for marketing and sustainable development of tourism, and a program of priority actions in order to contribute, in a significant way, to the country’s economy and peacekeeping and improve the country’s image internationally.
In addition, he added, that strategic plan for sustainable tourism defines the vision of Burundian tourism according to which Burundi will become one of the 20 main tourist destinations in Africa by 2025. He took that opportunity to invite Burundians to support tourism in Burundi.
He asked the Burundian government to develop tourist sites and build hotels next to those tourist sites to stimulate tourists.