President Paul Kagame opens Gorillas Golf Hotel

Rwandan President Paul Kagame opened the new 88 room Gorillas Golf Hotel on Nov.16 officially. The hotel is located in Nyarutarama district which is the neighborhood of Kigali city the country’s capital.

The hotel is the fourth for the hotel chain which was started 10 years ago. Other hotels of this nature are in Kigali, Musanze and Rubavu areas. The hotel investment will have benefits for the Rwandan society through Job creation and development of the tourism industry. According to President Kagame “this is a proof that no one will stand in the way of Rwanda achieving prosperity“. 

Though a small country, now Rwanda has 370 registered hotels with 6700 rooms across the country. Among the 370, only 31 have been graded and awarded stars. Several hotels are expected to open in the next few years including Marriott hotel (5 star) with 251 rooms which is still under construction.  Other soon to open hotels are Radisson Blu Hotel (5 star) which will run Kigali Convention Center with 292 rooms, Vision Hotel (4 star) with 157 rooms. Rwanda Sheraton Hotel was recently given a certificate which was a sign of appreciation.

With the above hotel development in the country, Rwanda Safaris will highly be recommended due to well developed accommodation facilities and this will definitely increase the country’s tourism earning in terms of foreign exchange and revenue.

Uganda declared a birding hub

The Pearl of Africa Uganda has been declared a preferred bird watching destination 2013 and 2014 which is a development expected to promote birding activities and uphold the country as a major tourist birding destination. This declaration was mad by the government after Birdlife International a global programme on conservation and protection of birds and their habitats, and Nature Uganda announced that the country has thirty four important bird watching areas with diverse bird species.

The Minister for Tourism Ms Maria Mutagamba declared Uganda as a preferred bird watching destination during the launch of the birding campaign that attracted various birders and guides at Kasenge Forest Resort Beach in Mukono District over the weekend. The ministry had been priding in the recent accolades by Lonely Planet, which voted Uganda as the best tourism destination for 2012 and Africa Bird Club, which voted Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Africa’s number one birding site. These accolades provide an important avenue for showcasing Uganda’s rich bird diversity which account for 10% of the world’s total bird species and 50% of Africa’s bird species population.

Our Uganda Safaris include a lot of birding places like Bigodi swamp walk, Mabamba Swamp, Ngamba Islands, Ssese Islands and so on. Join us for your birding experience while on your Safari in Uganda.

New Tourist Activity start in Mt. Elgon

Uganda wildlife Authority (UWA) has introduced a new tourism activity on Mt. Elgon national Park named the mountain bike-riding. The news was given out by the assistant warden at the national park, Mr. Stephen Nyadru, while speaking at the activity launch on Friday. He said that the new activity is aimed at attracting more tourists to the Park and it will include traversing of rocks, washouts, and steep declines, on dirt trails, logging roads, and gravel roads that wind along lazy streams through forested valleys or trails that climb up steep mountainsides; and other unpaved environments.

It is the first time that this form of tourism activity has been introduced in the country and will be most especially exercised by the tourists after climbing. This is because since most of the tourists remain dull during the descending, this activity will give them exercise down the hills as a modern form of Uganda’s tourism. The activity of mountain bike-riding will combine the pleasures of being in the mountains with the health advantages of altitude and gradients, significant level of physical exercise and the possibility to cover longer distances.

Posted by www.safaritoeastafrica.com

Cantsbee Silverback Gorilla turns 34 years old

One of the dominant Silverback Gorilla named Cantsbee of the Pablo group in Rwanda turned 34 years yesterday. He is one of the last living mountain Gorillas named by Dian Fossey and presides over the largest group of mountain gorillas that the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International monitors.

Cantsbee of Pablo Group in Rwanda

At the age of 34 years, Cantsbee is still very strong and out competing his son Gicurasi who is the second ranking silverback in Pablo group for dominance.  The fund hopes that since Cantsbee is still very strong, he pushes the record of the oldest mountain gorillas it monitors since the oldest male gorilla monitored by the fund died at the age of 35 and these were Pablo and Titus.

Mountain Gorillas in Bwindi Increase in numbers

Bwindi National Park in Uganda now has 400 mountain gorillas in its impenetrable forest. This report is according to the mountain gorilla census which was carried out in September to October 2011 in Bwindi. The latest gorilla census found that there was an increment by 60 gorillas to 340 counted in the last one in 2006 and because of this, tourists could now find it easier to track the gorillas in Bwindi. The report was confirmed and announced yesterday by the ministry of Tourism and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). With the increase in gorilla numbers, Uganda has been ranked the highest in the world as far as gorilla safaris and population is concerned. 

This gorilla population census was carried out by Uganda Wildlife Authority officials with the assistance from the international Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), the Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) in Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda Development Board (RDB) from Rwanda.

Mountain Gorilla in Bwindi National Park

According to the Minister of Tourism Ms Mutagambwa, there were currently 36 gorilla families in the park of Bwindi and 16 solitary males. Of the above families, only 10 are habituated for both tourism and research purposes. As of now, the world population of mountain gorillas stand at 880 in total following the two census that were carried out in Bwindi National Park in 2011 and the Virunga massif in 2010. The Virunga massif census results showed that there were 480 mountain gorillas in the parks of Mgahinga National Park (Uganda) National Park (Rwanda) and Virunga National Park (DRC). 

The gorilla population increase in Bwindi is a testimony to the sound natural resources management policies that are being implemented in the protected areas by the concerned organizations