From Burundi to Berlin

Augustin Ndikuriyo is a tourism entrepreneur, aiming to create a bridge for those looking for an adventure, educational, and cultural travel experiences in East Africa.

Augustin is a member of Travel Massive Africa and founder of Augustine Tours, a Rwanda travel company offering tailor-made tours to East Africa.

Read about Augustin’s story and his view on the tourism industry in Africa.

What’s it like growing up in Burundi?

Growing up in Burundi, a small east African country, has been wonderful in the sense that I enjoyed living with my family, and sometimes I imagine who I would have been without all of this.

It is in Burundi where I made a lot of friends on a regional (East African) and international scale from people I met at schools and worked with. Those experiences became a door for me to the tourism industry.

What inspired you to get into the tourism industry?

Prior to founding Augustine Tours (www.augustinetours.com) in 2010 at the age of 26, I spent nearly half a decade as a front office manager at Hotel Club du Lac Tanganyika in Burundi where I acquired a taste of the hospitality industry.

I realized that there was more to do for the tourism industry in Burundi and East Africa, besides working for the hotel industry.

This led to the birth of Augustine Tours as a bridge for those looking for an adventure, educational and cultural travel experience. My great inspiration has been St. Augustine’s quote “The World is a book and those who don’t travel only read one page”.

I wanted to be a solid bridge for those who travel to see, observe, experience, inspire, be inspired, learn, appreciate, and value cultures and countries other than just theirs.

What are the challenges developing tours in East Africa?

In the past, wildlife has been regarded as a sole destination activity in East Africa, which made other tourism experiences be overlooked. And this has made people think that in order to be able to travel to Africa, they have to save up a lot of money.

And again, this restricts a large number of young people from traveling to Africa. In our 9 years of operation, we’ve worked to attract more people under the age of 30 to visit this part of the world.

We’ve adopted a new approach to encourage more young people to travel to East Africa either on educational or cultural programs. And those programs don’t necessarily have to be expensive.

A perfect blend of wildlife and culture makes an East African vacation worthwhile on every level.

How do you find living in Germany?

Apart from being my profession, I also like to travel myself. Tourism for me is a school class for both, those who take trips and those who organize them. You will rarely hear a language of prejudice from people who travel. Learning about new cultures and languages has been one of the reasons to move to Germany.

Follow Augustin Ndikuriyo on Travel Massive or LinkedIn to connect with him and learn more about the tourism in East Africa.