Rwandans Spend Frw290 Billion Abroad This Year.
Rwandan residents spent an estimated $197.8 million on goods and services during trips abroad in the first six months of 2026, with business travel accounting for nearly half of the spending recorded in the second quarter, according to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).
The spending amounted to about Frw291 billion and was recorded through travel-related purchases made by Rwandans while outside the country. It does not include the cost of international transportation from Rwanda to their destinations. NISR’s Travel Expenditure Survey covers expenses such as accommodation, food and drinks, local transport, entertainment, sightseeing, shopping, gifts and other goods and services purchased during trips.
Rwandans spent $98.1 million abroad in the first quarter and another $99.7 million in the second quarter, bringing expenditure for the first half of the year to $197.8 million.
In the second quarter alone, business trips accounted for $49.1 million, representing the largest share of the $99.7 million spent by Rwandan residents abroad.
Travel to visit friends and relatives accounted for $20.5 million, while education-related trips took $18.9 million. Holiday travel accounted for $8.6 million, while medical travel amounted to $2.8 million.
Air travel accounted for $76.2 million of the total expenditure in the second quarter, compared with $23.5 million spent by residents travelling by land.
Among those travelling by air, business trips accounted for $32.8 million, followed by education at $17.6 million, visits to friends and relatives at $14.6 million, holidays at $8.5 million and medical travel at $2.7 million.
For land travel, business trips accounted for $16.2 million, while visits to friends and relatives represented $5.9 million.
NISR estimates that 53,904 Rwandan residents travelled abroad by air during the second quarter of 2026.
Of these, 31,876 travelled for business, 14,928 to visit friends and relatives, 4,929 for holidays, 1,644 for education and 527 for medical reasons.
Land travel involved 276,416 Rwandan residents during the same period. Nearly 210,000 of them travelled for business, while 59,599 travelled to visit friends and relatives.
NISR’s data shows that the average length and cost of trips varied according to the purpose of travel and destination.
For Rwandans travelling by air for business, the average daily expenditure in East African Community (EAC) countries was $102, compared with $140 per day for similar trips to North America.
Holiday travel also showed differences in spending depending on the destination. Rwandan residents travelling to Europe for holidays spent an average of $130 per day, while those travelling to EAC countries spent about $170 per day.
The figures form part of NISR’s latest Travel Expenditure Survey, which measures spending by Rwandan residents abroad as imports of travel services. The survey also measures spending by foreign visitors in Rwanda, which is recorded separately as exports of travel services. In the second quarter of 2026, Rwanda’s travel-service exports stood at $161.8 million.
