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Andrew Gatera had a promising business offering international visitors primate safari tours, such as treks to gorilla habitats in Rwanda and elsewhere in East Africa－until the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly grounded operations. But he is striving to ensure the company survives as he waits for the visitors to return.

Gatera, 34, managing director of the travel agency G-step Tours based in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, said that since the coronavirus emerged in Rwanda in March, his company has been hit with cancellations from clients who were booked to visit Rwanda and other parts of East Africa.

Only months before the country's COVID-19 outbreak, his company was named the "New Tour Company of The Year 2019" in awards handed out by the Rwanda Chamber of Tourism. It gained this recognition after the company's 2019 revenue doubled from the year before. Gatera founded the travel agency in 2017 after observing that a growing number of people were heading to Africa for its tourism attractions.

His company became popular with its primate safari tours in Rwanda, which is famed for its endangered mountain gorillas, and elsewhere in the East African region. It also arranges tours for people wanting to experience unique African cultures and those keen to capture such moments and landscapes on their cameras.

"Rwanda can offer almost every experience without spending lots of driving hours, such as gorilla trekking, safari, canopy-walk or just relaxing by a beautiful lake all in less than three hours' driving from the capital city Kigali," he said. "Our main clients were Chinese, Europeans and Americans until COVID-19 hit us."

Gatera said that even though many countries across the world have started to lift coronavirus lockdowns, the situation is particularly difficult for the tourism industry.

He is uncertain about the future of his business and frequently asks clients if they will have the confidence to travel again soon.

Rwanda eased its coronavirus lockdowns in May, maintaining a nighttime curfew as a precaution, but later imposed new coronavirus mitigation measures on one province when its coronavirus cases increased. The country had registered 2,062 coronavirus cases and five deaths as of Sunday, according to its health authorities.

Recovery fund

Gatera said he will do his best to ensure the business survives and hopes that a recovery fund set up by the Rwandan government will help.

"During the COVID-19 lockdown, we focused on building our online booking system and developing new products for our tour agents," he said. "We have also focused on online engagements with our clients."

Gatera recently introduced tourism destinations in Rwanda via livestreaming on the agency's Visit Rwanda national flagship store on the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao, which helped his country connect with 11,000 followers.

"We know that it won't get back to full operations instantly, but by next year everything will probably have settled since life has to continue with or without COVID-19," Gatera said.