Early this month, the government of Rwanda established a new visa regime that is intended to ease and improve movement of tourists in that country.

For instance, on reciprocity basis, Rwanda will grant visas free of charge with 90 days validity to all East African Community (EAC) partner states, and this takes immediate effect. This is in addition to other African and Asian states.

But more importantly, come January 1, 2018, citizens of all countries will be eligible to get a 30-days visa upon arrival without prior application.

Before this change, it was only nationals of African countries who would get visas upon arrival in Rwanda. Also, Rwanda has eased the movement of Comesa members into that country. They will now be able to get a 90 days’ visa upon arrival and upon payment of the prescribed fees.

Also, Rwandans living abroad with dual nationality will be allowed to use national IDs on entry and would not be required to pay any visa fees.

This innovative strategy of the Rwanda government will earn them rewards in the tourism sector. Uganda needs to watch with keen interest the innovations being implemented by the EAC partner states.

This is because, in terms of tourism resources, we almost rely on the same resources. For instance, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, heavily rely on wildlife, lakes, national parks, but the trick is in being innovative in trying to attract tourists for the same resource.

Kenya is good at infrastructure and pricing. It is must be recalled that Rwanda and Kenya have national airlines with direct flights to some of these countries that can be termed as tourist sources.

This is an added advantage and disadvantage to Uganda which has no national airline with direct flights to Europe or USA. Not even within the region.

Rwanda being landlocked has become wiser by waiving unnecessary conditions for visa applications.

We need to device ways of promoting our resources, heritage and also become inclusive and participatory in the global economic affairs by being creative. And one of the ways is to emulate the Rwanda approach to visa applications.

Source: The Observer

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