Born in its present form in the late 1980’s Eco-tourism came of age in 2002, when the United Nations celebrated the “International year of Eco-tourism”. Essentially, it refers to Ecological tourism; where ecological has both environmental and social implications in addition to cultural perfomances like the Intore dance. Albeit it may change according to various countries, it is both a concept and movement in the tourism industry.

A narrow search on the Internet, will show that eco-tourism is a mixture of both tourism and the environment, for example planning before development, sustainability of resources, economic viability of a tourism product, no negative effect on either the environment or local communities, responsibility for the environment from developers, the tourism sector and tourists, environmentally-friendly practices by all parties concerned and economic benefits going to local communities.

Ever since its beginning in the late 1980’s the countries over the world, whose tourism industry deserves writing about, have engaged in an active campaign to support the type of tourism which is not so extractive, but instead sustainable. For example, the current economic assessment of the rainforest land use in Brazil, where conservationists concluded that logging the forest offered an initial high return, followed by low income. Changing of the forest into pastureland was even less rewarding and needed substantial initial investment and the study determined that eco-tourism offered the most income for the long time.

The similar high end practice in tourism is echoed in Kenya, where local communities are  perceiving the economic benefits of eco-tourism and are usually induced to protect resources and acquire conservationist ways and this has therefore turned into serious revenue, a case in point is Amboseli National Park in Kenya, where each lion is approximated to be worth 27,000 USD and each elephant herd is worth 610,000 USD in tourist revenue each year therefore their new motto: “Wildlife pays wildlife stays”.

What is not needed to say, is the Rwandan tourism industry controlled by ORTPN (Office Rwandais Du Tourisme Et Des Parcs Nationaux) its governing body, are not spared in the advocacy of the advocacy of the eco-tourism in the touring sector. Rwanda together with its eco-tourism activities which involve Golden monkey trekking in Nyungwe Forest, Gorilla tracking of the five families in the Volcanoes National Park, the over 300 bird species to watch, which involve the Rwenzori Turaco, giant lobelias and more than 200 distinct kinds of trees and flowers, which also involve the famous wild orchids, has embarked on important ways which are geared at directing Rwanda’s tourism industry to an eco-tourist based one.

The policy at the ORTPN is one aimed at high end type of tourism, in contrary to mass  tourism. In the high end tourism system, you do not get many tourists, but then you get a big amount of revenue from it. This is aimed at the preservation and management of the environmentally sensitive regions.

According to ORTPN, the focus has viewed such measures being put in place, like the five gorilla families in Volcanoes National Park, have to be toured by a maximum of eight people per day, and they get to spend with the family less than an hour each tour. All this will be at a cost of 375 USD each day for visitors coming from outside the country, 250 USD for the local visitors who are not non-nationals and frw10, 000 for nationals.

Concerning Nyungwe forest, which is popular for its attractive nature walks to the Kamiranzovu big swamps and the wonderful cascading water falls, visitors are supposed to use gazetted trails and when deep in the forest, are obliged to be led by the forest guides, to look at hundreds of the bird species, hundreds of colobus monkeys and the different plant species found there.

However, here again the policy is that nobody is supposed to get out of the forest with anything, even if the wild orchid. With a limited number of visitors and activity, the tourism of a sustainable tourism.

The ORTPN activities, which are geared toward eco-tourism, have put effect on the several tourist place, in a way that has in turn, approved responsible tourism.
An example is Banda, which is a small village in Nyunguwe Forest, that is often times toured by the visitors. The inhabitants of this place have managed to tap directly from the visitors, owing to their crafts that they sell to the visitors.

The office itself, has been able to contribute to communities surrounding these tourist attraction, in sharing revenue schemes all over the country, an amount  in the year which has come to frw 42 milliom, for their several projects of self-development, which have no attachement at all on tourism and which is a developing tendency.

Just like tourism in places, the tendencies in Rwanda are changing and welcoming tourism since it aims at long-term benefits in a sustainable tourist atmosphere.