Gorilla trekking is without a doubt one of the reasons many celebrities around the world have a story to tell about Rwanda. Every year, for close to two decades now, Rwanda organizes an annual gorilla naming ceremony known as Kwita Izina. During this event, many celebrities from the world grace the event.
Majority of the people that visit Rwanda during the Kwita Izina often go gorilla trekking in Volcanoes national park of Rwanda. This park has a long history in shaping the present day Rwanda. It is in the same forest that the current president of Rwanda made his base for the guerilla warfare that saw the end of the Rwandan genocide.
In these same forests of Rwanda’s Volcanoes national park is a haven for the endangered mountain gorillas. While many people are used to seeing gorillas in Zoos with a glass in between them and the gorillas; Rwanda offers a once in a life time opportunity where you get to meet with the gorillas face to face without any barriers!
The experience is a delicate one however for the last 30 years of gorilla trekking in Rwanda, no one has ever been attacked by a mountain gorillas. Though these animals are wild, the guidelines issued by the Rwanda development board ensure that visitors to do not do things that may get the gorillas agitated.
Many people often visit Rwanda for this once in a lifetime opportunity but for Rwanda, this is an effort for conservation of endangered species. In an attempt to ensure conservation, there is a limited number of people allowed to access the gorilla families on a given day. This is partly the reason why gorilla trekking permits are issued.
Gorilla trekking permits are simply permissions allowing you to spend a maximum of one hour with the gorillas in the company of armed game rangers. The permit rates vary according to nationality. The current rates were introduced in an effort to revamp tourism after the covid-19 pandemic.
As part of promoting the recovery of tourism after the Covid 19 breakout, Rwanda discounted its gorilla permit rates from US$1500 to US$200 for East Africans, US$500 for African Citizens and Foreign Residents of Africa with valid work permits. International travelers pay US$1500 to obtain gorilla permits for gorilla tracking in the Volcanoes National Park Rwanda.
The same rates went on until the end of 2023. At the beginning of 2024; The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has confirmed that the move to discount gorilla permits is a wider effort to make Rwanda attractive to tourists. The new price regime has been renewed and is valid up to 31st December 2024.
The move is likely to boost tourism and has been welcomed by tour operators as a positive move to increase earnings from gorilla tourism, the back bone of Rwanda’s tourism industry.
Tourists from around the whole world travel to the Volcanoes National Park for a once in a lifetime experience with the mountain gorillas and the receipts earned from tourism are used to fund the efforts to conserve the apes.
Rwanda is one of the few destinations which hosts the mountain gorillas, the world’s rare great apes. These mountain dwelling primates are confined to the Virunga Massif – that includes the Volcanoes National Park, Uganda’s Mgahinga National Park and the Virunga National Park of the Democratic Republic of Congo. A separate population also thrives in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in South Western Uganda.
The country has reached a great milestone in protecting the mountain gorillas and there are reports of a growing population of the great apes that were previously listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
