• Tourism is the largest source of foreign exchange earnings in Rwanda and it is projected to grow at a rate of 25% every year from 2013-18.
• The sector is the biggest contributor to the national export strategy
• Total revenues generated from the sector in 2014 alone was UsD305 Million
• The sector has also attracted Foreign Direct Invest- ments with major international hotel brands setting shop in the country, including the Marriot, Raddison blue, Park Inn by Raddison, sheraton, Protea, Golden Tulip and Zinc.
• Rwanda is carving out its niche as a regional and in- ternational conferences hub, with its new world – class conventional center, owing to:
• Ever improving conference facilities
• straight forward immigration procedures (online visa applications, visa-at-gate policy for all Afri- cans, one tourist visa policy for EAC)
• An excellent and expanding transport network
• Diverse entertainment options
• The rapid growth of RwandAir, in addition to oth- er airlines serving Kigali such as KLM, sN brussels, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines & Kenya Airways
• opening the economy to the outside world.

Tourism in the park
The Rwanda tourist board, ORTPN, runs several activities for tourists, including

• Gorilla visits - there are four habituated groups open to tourists, allowing for a total of 32 permits per day. Tourists spend an hour with the gorillas.
• Golden monkey visits.
• Climbing of Karisimbi volcano - this is a two day trek with overnight camping at an altitude of 3,800 m.
• Climbing of Bisoke volcano - one day.
• Tour of the lakes and caves.
• Visiting the tomb of Dian Fossey.

The majority of revenue from tourism goes towards maintaining the park and conserving wildlife. The remainder goes to the government and approximately ten percent is contributed to projects in the area which benefit the local people.

Akagera National Park
The Akagera National Park is situated at lower altitudes in the northeast part of the country, on the Tanzanian border. It was founded in 1934 to protect animals in three ecoregions: savannah, mountain and swamp. The beautiful Lake Shakani and Lake Ihema are within the park's borders. Much of the savannah area of the park was settled in the late 1990s by former refugees returning after the end of the Rwandan Civil War, but the other regions remain relatively remote. Animals which fled during the upheavals are now returning. The park is named for the Kagera River which flows through it. The Akagera covers 90,000 hectares (347.5 sq mi), making it the second largest national park in Rwanda. Founded in 1934, it was Rwanda's second national park to be established.

Flora and fauna Akagera National Park, in contrast to much of the rest of the country, is dominated by swamps and lakes which follow the meandering course of the Akagera River, the most remote source of the Nile. The land within this park is considered archetypal African savannah landscape of tangled acacia woodland interspersed with open grassland.
Akagera is essentially big game country. There are herds of elephant, buffalo, giraffe, and zebra, along with leopards, spotted hyenas and lions. The park is home to more than a dozen types of antelope, most commonly the chestnut-coated impala, as well as the diminutive oribi and secretive bushbuck, the world's largest antelope, the eland and the ungainly tsessebe.
The park's waters are home to hippopotami - often gathered in pods of 50 or more - and crocodiles. There are a recorded 425 species of bird life. Some of Africa's densest concentrations of waterbirds along the park's shores, while the marshes provide habitat for a number of endangered species, such as the papyrus gonolek and the shoe-bill, the latter possibly the most eagerly sought of all African birds.

Nyungwe Forest National P
Nyungwe Forest National Park is the most recent of Rwanda's national parks, established in 2004. It is in the southwestern part of the country, located south of Lake Kivu on the border with Burundi. The park contains the largest block of montane forest in East or Central Africa, and one of the most ancient, dating back to before the last Ice Age.
With great floral diversity, the forest is home to more than 200 different types of trees and a myriad of flowering plants. Rainforest, bamboo, grassland, swamps, and bogs complete the area. Mount Bigugu is located within the park borders. The Nyungwe is the largest of Rwanda's national parks, at 97,000 hectares (374.5 sq mi).
Animal life
Nyungwe has a wide diversity of animal species, making it a priority for conservation in Africa. The forest is situated in a region where several large-scale biogeographical zones meet and the variety of terrestrial biomes provide a great span of microhabitats for many different species of plants and animals.

The park contains 13 different primate species (25 percent of Africa's total), 275 bird species, 1,068 plant species, 85 mammal species, 32 amphibian and 38 reptile species. Many of these animals are restricted-range species that are only found in the Albertine Rift ecoregion in Africa. In fact, the number of endemic species found here is greater than in any other forest in the Albertine Rift that has been surveyed.
Carnivores in the park include leopard, golden cat, serval cat, side stripped jackal, Genet, African civet, slender and marsh mongoose. There are three species of horned chameleons and 120 species of butterflies.

Primate species
• Common Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)
• Adolf Friedrich's Angola Colobus (Colobus angolensis ruwenzori)
• L'Hoest's Monkey (Cercopithecus l'hoesti)
• Silver Monkey (Cercopithecus doggetti)
• Golden Monkey (Cercopithecus kandti)
• Hamlyn's Monkey (Cercopithecus hamlyni)
• Red-tailed Monkey (Cercopithecus ascanius)
• Dent's Mona Monkey (Cercopithecus denti)
• Vervet Monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus)
• Olive Baboon (Papio anubis)
• Grey-cheeked Mangabey (Lophocebus albigena)