Africa-Press – Angola. The Historic Center of Mbanza Kongo, Zaire, elevated to a World Heritage Site in July 2017, registered, in 2023, seven thousand and 519 tourists, including nationals and foreigners, an increase of two thousand and 463 in relation to the year 2022.
Speaking this Monday, the head of the Museum of the Kingdom of Kongo, Kediamosiko Toko, specified that of this number of tourists, 248 (+116) are foreign citizens from the United States of America, Brazil, Portugal and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In relation to national excursionists, the source said that, during the period under analysis, seven thousand and 271 (+2,215) visitors were recorded from different parts of the country, including the ruins of Kulumbimbi, the Museum of the Kingdom of Kongo, the secular Yala Nkuwu and the Tady dya Bukikwa, the main monuments and historical sites visited.
He explained that the increase in the number of national and foreign tourists to the Historic Center of Mbanza Kongo was mainly due to the partnership established with eight tourism agencies based in the country’s capital, Luanda.
He explained that the aforementioned agencies promote tour packages to the Historic Center of Mbanza Kongo that include transport, tour guides, hotel reservations, among other services.
In his opinion, the partnership is helping to boost, promote and publicize this historic center, inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Cultural Heritage of Humanity, on July 8, 2017.
The person in charge expressed the desire to extend this partnership to more agencies, including abroad, to promote greater awareness of the Historic Center of Mbanza Kongo.
He also valued the role of the National Tourism Plan (PLANATUR), which also envisages the promotion of some activities in Mbanza Kongo, in the 2024/2025 biennium.
Museum of the Kings of Kongo has new name
He informed that since November 2023, the Museum of the Kings of Kongo has been renamed the Museum of the Kingdom of Kongo, due to the new organic status that that museum institution has.
The status granted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism also grants administrative and financial autonomy to this reservoir of the collection of the former Kingdom of Kongo.
He added that the new organic status will streamline the functioning of this museum, allowing the recruitment of more technicians and the transition to permanent staff of some staff who to date have been in the status of collaborators.
The Kongo Kingdom Museum exhibits, in its galleries, 92 pieces that portray historical, geographical and political aspects of the Kongo space, as well as its form of social and economic organization.
The Kingdom of Kongo’s opening to the world, through its diplomacy, the utensils and objects used by ancestors and sovereigns, including gifts from the kings of Portugal, are also on display in this museum.
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