I am writing this letter personally, without passing through any authority or intermediary, because this is a story that comes directly from my heart.

In 2017, when I was still young, ambitious and trying to find my way in life, I had the opportunity to meet you.

I still have a photograph from that moment. In that photograph, you were standing beside me with your hand on my shoulder.

At that time, I was simply a young hustler trying to build a future. But during that encounter, you spoke about Burundians who were outside the country and encouraged us to come back home and invest in Burundi.

When I later returned to Burundi, I came with money and with the hope of building something in my own country.

But coming back was not as easy as I had imagined.

It was difficult trying to establish a life in a place where I did not yet know enough people, did not have strong connections and had to learn how everything worked from the beginning.

In 2018, I tried to start a restaurant.

I invested my time, energy and money into it, but unfortunately the restaurant did not work out.

I stayed in Burundi for almost two years trying to make things work, but eventually I became discouraged.

I gave up and went to Dubai.

In Dubai, I started another business called Smart One Cleaning Services.

I was once again building my life outside Burundi.

But wherever a person goes, there is always something that can pull him back toward his country.

For me, one of those things was the message I had heard years earlier.

I kept remembering those words about Burundians returning home and investing in their own country.

Eventually, I decided to leave what I was doing and come back to Burundi.

When I returned, one thing kept going through my mind.

Even before fully establishing myself again in Burundi, I had already been learning how to market my own businesses outside the country.

I understood that today, before many people travel somewhere, they first search for that place on Google, social media, travel websites and blogs.

What they find online can determine whether they decide to visit a country or avoid it.

I therefore decided to use the knowledge I had in computers and digital marketing to present another image of Burundi to the world.

Burundi Travel Guide

I created BurundiTravelGuide.com, a website dedicated to talking positively about our beautiful country.

My intention was simple: when somebody somewhere in the world searched for Burundi, I wanted them to discover our landscapes, our culture, our people and the experiences that exist here.

I wanted people to see more than the negative stories that have too often defined Burundi internationally.

I secured the domain name BurundiTravelGuide.com a long time ago, before someone else could register it, because I already understood how important it could be for promoting Burundi online. I wanted to preserve that opportunity and build something useful for our country.

Travelling Across Burundi

I did not want to promote a country that I had not personally explored.

So I travelled through different provinces of Burundi.

I visited tourism destinations, communities, cultural sites, natural attractions and places that many people outside Burundi had never heard of.

I took many photographs along the way.

I saw our hills, our waterfalls, Lake Tanganyika, our forests, our cultural heritage and the daily life of our people.

That belief became even stronger.

M Travel & Tours Burundi

I later developed the blog on MTravelAndToursBI.com.

Through that platform, I continued publishing information about Burundi and showing travellers a different side of the country from many of the negative things they may read online.

What had started almost like an experiment eventually became a serious tourism company: M Travel & Tours Burundi.

Every day, through this company, I tell people to visit Burundi.

I tell them to discover Burundi.

And whenever possible, I also tell people to look at Burundi as a country where they can invest.

Over the years, we have welcomed thousands of visitors.

We have guided travellers across the country, introduced them to our communities, taken them to cultural attractions, national parks, Lake Tanganyika, Gishora and many other places.

Today, M Travel & Tours Burundi has received more than 450 reviews, the great majority of them positive, in addition to other reviews, photographs, comments and recommendations shared through social media and travel platforms.

Those reviews are important to me because every positive review is not only a review of my company.

In many cases, it is also somebody returning home and telling other people that they visited Burundi, that they were welcomed here and that they had a good experience.

Africa Things To Do

I did not stop with M Travel & Tours Burundi.

I created AfricaThingsToDo.com, a continental tourism platform designed to talk about destinations across Africa.

Even though the platform covers Africa, Burundi has always had a special place in the project.

I wanted a traveller researching Africa to also discover Burundi.

Many people have discovered Burundi through the websites and content I have created, and some of them eventually travelled here.

BurundiAirport.com

I later created BurundiAirport.com.

I created it because the visitor experience does not begin only when a tourist reaches a hotel or tourism attraction.

It begins before the traveller even enters the country.

It includes the information they find online, what they expect before travelling, their experience upon arrival, the customer service they receive and the impression they carry when they leave Burundi.

When I created that platform, part of my thinking was that perhaps one day the government or the responsible institutions would reach out and we could discuss how digital information, tourism customer service and the visitor experience could be improved.

I believe that if we pay attention to the complete visitor journey, we can prevent many negative experiences before they become negative reviews about our country.

Promoting Gishora and Burundi's Culture

I also created a website dedicated to Gishora Drum Sanctuary.

I did not create it because I expected to make money from it.

I created it because I wanted people searching online to discover the Royal Drummers of Burundi and understand that our country possesses extraordinary cultural heritage.

After that, I continued creating other websites, blogs and online platforms that promote Burundi in different ways.

For Me, This Is More Than Business

Your Excellency, for me this work has never been only about making money.

It is connected to patriotism.

I have welcomed thousands of people to Burundi with the belief that every person who enters our country is an opportunity.

It is an opportunity to show somebody that Burundi is peaceful, beautiful, welcoming and full of potential.

It is also an opportunity for that visitor to become somebody who speaks positively about Burundi after leaving.

I am not writing this because I want a trophy.

I am not asking to be celebrated for doing something for my own country.

I am writing because I sincerely believe that I can do much more.

I believe that what I have built, what I have learned and the digital platforms I have created could contribute even more to Burundi if there were an opportunity to cooperate, exchange ideas and invest seriously in the visitor experience and international promotion of the country.

Young Burundians Are Working

I also know that my story is not the only one.

There are many young Burundians working extremely hard in different sectors.

Some are building businesses.

Some are working in technology.

Some are working in agriculture, tourism, culture, media, transport, hospitality and many other areas.

Many of them are doing valuable work, but their work is not always seen.

Sometimes people continue working for years without recognition, encouragement or an opportunity to present what they have built.

I continued believing in my own work because I remembered that the encouragement to return home and invest was something I had personally heard while standing near you.

That moment gave those words a different meaning to me.

My Commitment to Burundi

I believe Burundi can become one of the most interesting tourism destinations in this region.

But tourism is not built only by having beautiful places.

We must tell the world those places exist.

We must make information easy to find.

We must welcome visitors properly.

We must listen to their experiences.

We must correct problems that create unnecessary negative reviews.

And we must use modern technology, digital marketing, photography, websites, social media and international tourism platforms to compete for the attention of travellers around the world.

These are things I have spent years learning and doing.

I know that I can contribute much more in welcoming people to Burundi and helping reduce the negative experiences that sometimes damage the image of our country abroad.

I am proud of what I have managed to build so far, but I also know that what has been done is only a small part of what is possible.

My commitment to the beauty of Burundi will not stop.

As long as I am able, I will continue taking photographs of Burundi.

I will continue building platforms that talk about Burundi.

I will continue marketing our country.

I will continue welcoming visitors.

I will continue telling people to come and see Burundi for themselves.

And I will continue encouraging people to look at Burundi not only as somewhere to visit, but also as somewhere to invest.

Burundi is my country.

I left.

I came back.

I struggled.

I left again.

And I came back again.

Through all of that, I never stopped believing that something meaningful could be built here.

Part of the reason I continued believing was because many years ago, as a young hustler, I stood beside the President of my country and heard a message encouraging Burundians to return home and invest.

I took those words seriously.

This is part of what I have done with them.

This letter was written by me personally.

I am contacting you directly without passing through any authority or intermediary because I wanted you to hear the story in my own words.

Thank you, Mr. President, for taking the time to read my story.

And thank you for the words you gave to a young man many years ago.