ABSTRACT
The tourism industry and its associated infrastructure is propelling Rwanda's rapid urbanization and economic growth. Recently adopted green buildings and green city policies, including newly developed city master plans and green building code, reflect on the tourism industry, regulating its influence on urban development and communities. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism in Rwanda was one of the key sectors of economic development, and the largest foreign exchange earner, contributing to almost 15% of gross domestic product, generating 13% of the total employment. Rapid growth of the tourism sector is potentially linked to consumption of high carbon-intensive building materials, energy-intensive transportation choices, high dependency on fossil fuels for lighting, cooking, heating and cooling, and cleaning. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to the loss of USD 1.2 trillion in international tourism globally. In Rwanda, closure of borders for passenger flights and businesses other than essential services, and postponing of events, influenced the loss of about USD 7.6 million in income and 4000 jobs in the tourism sector. In addition to the Rwandan government's support of affected tourism businesses and linked livelihoods, there is a need for more innovative and sustainable solutions to building back better. After surveying hotel suppliers and hotel managers in Rwanda's Musanze District and analyzing the results, this chapter provides recommendations for actions on how Rwanda's secondary cities, that highly depend on tourism, can respond to the pandemic and set a path of sustainable and inclusive growth by boosting resilience, clean energy transition, and a circular economy. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
The importance of sustainable mobility has also been confirmed this year by the global pandemic of COVID-19, which has reduced the mobility of the population, thereby it has significantly reduced the level of dust, noise, and air pollution from the traffic in most European countries, including the Slovak Republic. App-based and shared-ride services have become highly popular and offer a level of convenience unseen before in the urban mobility systems all over the world. Individual car transport dominates at the expense of sustainable modes of transport in most Slovak cities. The city of Nitra is no exception, as the high number of trips during the peak-hours often leads to severe traffic congestion. One way to contribute to better condition is multimodality that allows urban residents to choose from a range of alternative travel choices. The aim of this paper is to assess the possibilities of multimodality in the context of short distance moves in the city of Nitra as well as to analyse how the change of mode choice variability affects the urban mobility behaviour. For the purpose of meet the objectives of this paper, a marketing research was conducted. The research findings show that the travel behaviour of Nitra’s citizens does not show the elements of sustainable urban mobility as the current infrastructure and overall opportunities are limited. Our findings point to significant differences in attitudes of residents from different urban areas. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.