The National Touristic Board gathered people from hotels, travel agencies, renting cars companies, etc to sensitize them to the importance of collecting and creating touristic data base in Burundi. The workshop took place last Friday at Star Hotel of Bujumbura.-By Yves Didier Irakoze
Partial view of participants in the workshop ©Iwacu
“The data will have a statistic role. They will be used in planning and promoting tourism in Burundi. Then, they will be published on the website to let everybody know about our touristic domain, either local or foreign people,” states Christophe Ndikubwayo, Director of Study, Statistics and Training at the Burundi National Touristic Office.
Ndikubwayo mentions that the data will be composed of information like the hotels we have in Burundi, their price and characteristics, the number of rooms they have, their restaurants they have, the services those hotels provide, the touristic sites we have in Burundi, the travel agencies or renting car agencies… to facilitate tourists. “This will help tourists to know Burundi as well as to book while they are even outside the country,” points out Ndikubwayo.
However, he deplores that some touristic actors reluctantly refuse to provide the data and the details of their activities but don’t realize that it’s for their benefit. They don’t take the advantage of working on statistical information. Ndikubwayo adds that there is a lack of updated touristic data in Burundi, those we have were issued in 2009 according to Burundi Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (ISTEEBU).
He also indicates that tourists come and go and they are registered but data as well as their files are not exploited. As a matter of fact, the government will soon proceed to restructure tourism within the country. He states that the National Touristic Office plans to classify hotels according to the number of stars and professionalism. That is the reason why the Burundi Chamber of Hotels and Tourism has invited Burundi Shop to propose touristic actors an internet site to post their details and information about their activities and services.
Participants point out that they gained much from the workshop. “We benefit from the workshop as they push us to promote our services through the site. However, the Chamber could more clarify how to provide our data because, for instance, in my hotel, we always provide data to the National Security Service. So, we don’t know that it’s the same information that we have to provide to the National Tourism Office,” states Tharcilla Nduwimana, Governor of Alexestel Hotel.
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