Just as Rwanda has been known for its endless surprises, the land of a thousand hills has done it again striking all news headlines all over the globe. The evening of 22nd May 2018 was full of celebrations and excitement in Rwanda having signed a three-year partnership with Arsenal “the football club for many”. The major aim of the partnership is to boost tourism in the land of thousand hills and encourage more travelers into the country. Rwanda is now an official tourism partner of Arsenal club with the “visit Rwanda” logo featuring on the left side of first ever shirtsleeve of the premier leagues football club. Also, the partnership of Rwanda and arsenal is a blessing to Rwanda giving it an opportunity to showcase her vibrancy and beauty to the outside world. Also, this partnership gives Rwanda a chance to expose her energy, creativity and innovativeness, which together make it an exceptional destination to visit. This year, Rwanda will host Arsenal players from the men and women’s team to train and engage Arsenal fans all around the world through Arsenals social media platform. In this case, Arsenal club coaches in Rwanda will set up camps for all players to ensure interaction and enjoyment in the land of a thousand hills. More still, the visit will be a platform for supporting the training of young boys and girls in Rwanda and also an opportunity for Rwanda to brand herself on the Match day LED board meetings and Arsenals club stadium which host over 250,000 visitors every year.
With no doubt, this partnership will disclose Rwanda and her beauty into people’s minds in a new and dynamic way, which has not been the case in the past. Each day, visit Rwanda logo will be seen 35 million times around the world since arsenal is one of the most viewed teams in the world. Vinai Venkatesham , the Arsenal chief commercial office also showed his excitement over his club’s partnership with Rwanda through which Rwanda’s ambitions to develop its tourism industry will be supported.
Rwanda’s partnership with Arsenal will expose all tourism offerings in Rwanda such as national parks especially volcanoes national park for gorilla safaris and golden monkeys, Akagera national park for big five game (lions, leopards, elephants, buffalos, rhinos, zebras and warthogs) and Nyungwe forest national park for the famous chimpanzees and canopy walk. All investment opportunities in Rwanda will also be exposed to visitors. Rwanda Development Board therefore expect an increases in visitor arrivals compared to previous year Last year (2-017), Rwanda hosted roughly 1.3 million visitors, 94,000 of whom were tourists to Volcanoes, Nyungwe, Akagera national parks to enjoy what nature has blessed Rwanda with. Tourism is the major source of employment opportunities, which employ over 90,000 people directly and directly. Also, the tourism sector is Rwanda’s major foreign exchange earner contributing over 60% of the country’s gross domestic product.
While analyzing it’s doing business statistics, the World Bank ranked Rwanda as the third easiest and best place for business. This complements other country’s competiveness in tourism leadership and marketing as recognized by the world travel and tourism council (WTTC) and world economic forum. Also Rwanda ranks as the second fastest growing country in Africa with great investment opportunities, which attract a high number of business people from all parts of the world. To ease business operations, Rwanda signed free trade agreements with over 50 countries, which assure investors with ready market for their products. For starters, it only takes 6 hours to register a new business in Rwanda and start working immediately unlike in other countries. Rwanda’s economy registers a 7.3% growth per annum hence a great place for investment.
National geographic, Rwanda Development Board and the government of Rwanda are the sponsors of this partnership.
