Rwandan tours come to Alibaba’s Fliggy

Rwandan tour packages have been placed on one of China’s major online travel service platforms, which enable Chinese tourists to directly book a tour to the East African nation, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) said on Wednesday in a statement.

The launch of a “Visit Rwanda” pavilion on Alibaba’s travel arm, Fliggy, followed the launch of the Chinese e-commerce giant’s Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) in October, which aims to promote publicprivate dialogue.

According to the memorandum of understanding signed between the Rwandan government and Alibaba under the framework of eWTP, Fliggy and the RDB will work together to promote Rwanda as a tourist destination through a Rwanda Tourism Store for booking flights, hotels and travel experiences and a Destination Pavilion, where Chinese consumers can learn more about Rwanda.

“We believe that the Visit Rwanda pavilion on Fliggy is one of the avenues that will lead to an increase in tourism traffic to Rwanda from China,” said Clare Akamanzi, CEO of the RDB, in the statement.

Chairman of the Rwanda Chamber of Tourism Aimable Rutagarama said the Rwandan tourism sector is confident that putting tourism products on Chinese online platforms will help the industry more efficiently penetrate deeper into the Chinese market.

The move will also help the tourism sector earn more profits as intermediaries will be bypassed and commissions reduced, said Rutagarama in the statement.