The three-year partnership, according to RDB will see the new “Visit Rwanda” logo featured on the left sleeve of all first team, under-23 and Arsenal Women’s matches from the new season starting in August.
The deal will among others highlight Rwanda’s tourism offerings such as the National Parks, which are attracting number of tourists due to growing numbers of wildlife including black rhino, lions, zebra, chimpanzees and the famous mountain gorillas, as well as the investment opportunities in the country.
Different people took on social media praising the deal as forward looking initiative, while on the other side critics were raised saying that it was not priority for a developing country like Rwanda.
Though RDB did not reveal the value of the deal, Dutch MPs wondered why a country which receives so much aid from the Netherlands is able to invest €30 million in sponsoring Arsenal’s shirts.
MPs tasked Netherlands Minister of Aid to raise the issue with Rwanda. They criticized the deal saying that it is disheartening to see such payments being made, while the international community is trying to tackle the poverty.
Rwanda casts-off the critics
The State Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and East African Community Affairs, Amb. Olivier Nduhungirehe took on twitter that the deal is not part of Netherlands MPs’ business.
“Dear MPs from The Netherlands. This is none of your business. Rwanda uses revenues from National Parks to promote investment and tourism, aiming self-reliance,” reads the tweet.
He said that Rwanda will talk business with the Netherlands teams once they will have popularity like Arsenal.
“The day AFC Ajax or Feyenoord Rotterdam get a similar popularity worldwide like Arsenal, then we will talk business!” he said.
According to RDB Chief Executive Officer, Clare Akamanzi whoever criticizes the deal doesn’t understand the context of marketing in business.
“Anyone who criticizes our deal with Arsenal on account of Rwanda being poor or an aid recipient, either wishes for Rwanda to be perpetually so, or doesn’t understand that in any business, marketing costs are a key component of a company’s expenditures,” she said in a tweet.
“The Rwanda Development Board generates revenues from sale of tourism products, from which it uses a portion to market its products for further growth. The Arsenal deal falls within this arrangement, just like our tourism exhibitions, sales consultancies,” she added.
She said that $800 targeted million from tourism revenues cannot be achieved miraculously.
“Our national goal is to double tourism revenues to $800m by 2024, from $404 million currently. This won’t happen by sitting and waiting, but by being proactive, and marketing Rwanda as a tourist destination in innovative ways. Now- Relax and let the world Visit Rwanda,” she emphasized.
How tourism promotion will impact the lives of Rwandans?
According to RDB, the Arsenal Football Club partnership is part of Rwanda’s long-term tourism development and conservation strategy that is grounded in Vision 2050 and EDPRS II. As part of this strategy Rwanda has upgraded its conference and hospitality infrastructure, transport networks, tourist attractions and conservation policies.
Rwanda is today ranked third most popular destination in Africa for hosting international meetings and events by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).
National carrier, Rwandair, now flies to 26 destinations globally. In addition, the Akagera National Park has been restocked with lions and Black Rhinos in order to make it a Big 5 park and the Volcanoes National Park has been expanded in order to create additional habitat for the endangered mountain gorilla. Today, tourism is Rwanda’s largest foreign exchange earner and has generated over 90,000 jobs so far.
Tourism has played a major role in helping the local community. One of the major tourism initiatives was the Revenue Sharing Programme that was initiated in 2005 by the Government of Rwanda.
The Revenue Share program aims to guide investment in the areas surrounding the various national parks in Rwanda.
Over USD 1.28 million has been distributed by the Rwanda Development Board to more than 158 community-based projects. These projects have availed clean drinking water, health centers, classrooms and housing to members of the communities living around the three national parks; Akagera National Park, Nyungwe National Park and Volcanoes National Park.
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