Project Director
Horwath HTL Interconsult Ltd.
Carmen Nibigira is a seasoned tourism policy analyst with over 18 years’ experience in the hotel and tourism industry in Africa and Europe.
She is the former regional Coordinator of the East Africa Tourism Platform and a former Director General of the Burundi National Tourism Office. She has previously managed tour operation companies in Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda as well as managed an international hotel in Tanzania.
Carmen is a seasoned tourism policy analyst. She has also conducted tourism and hospitality related capacity building training in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As a tourism consultant, Carmen has advised governments and non-governmental organizations on tourism planning, strategy and business competitiveness in West and Central Africa.
She worked at the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, Switzerland, as an Academic Assistant and Researcher before joining Clemson University in 2012 where she is currently a PhD Candidate in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management. Her area of research is focused on policy and political economy of tourism as well as on the sociopolitical fabric of emerging tourism destinations. Carmen believes in her long-term vision of reinforcing human capacity and policy development in tourism for Africa.
She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Akilah Institute, an East Africa higher education college that offers market-relevant education with a campus in Rwanda. She also publishes widely on different issues related to tourism development in East Africa and is known to be an advocate for inter and intra-regional travel and tourism in Africa. Carmen is an avid reader, traveller and mother of two boys.
This year, Carmen accepted the award of Women in Tourism Leadership in Africa and was voted as one of the top100 influential women in travel in 2017. Carmen is widely known as a speaker and moderator in different discussions, international conferences, chaired high level meeting on regional tourism as well as a reputable TV and radio voice on tourism and travel as well as women in education.
Currently, based in Kigali, Carmen is serving as a Project Director at Horwath HTL a global leader in hospitality and in charge of a MasterCard Foundation project supporting the tourism and hospitality sector in Rwanda in line of its transformation strategy and vision of improving skills, developing products and investment in the tourism and hospitality sector.