A year after clinching a deal with English Premiership club Arsenal to rebrand itself abroad as a tourist destination Rwanda on Wednesday announced signing a three-year partnership with French side Paris Saint Germain to promote the country’s inspiring transformation and “Made in Rwanda” campaign.
According to the statement issued in Kigali the PSG community and the world will have a unique opportunity to experience Rwanda’s breath-taking beauty for the next three seasons, including creative culture, innovative environment, and modern and distinctive Made in Rwanda products through unprecedented and creative communications.
The partnership will also convey Rwanda’s openness to welcome business partnerships from France and across the world.
As part of this new partnership, PSG’s first team players and legends will travel to Rwanda for remarkable experiences that will be shared with the club’s more than 70 million fans across the globe, it said.
Among other activities scheduled as part of this ‘win-win partnership” Rwanda and Paris Saint-Germain will bring together their expertise through a new model of sport partnership built around three main cornerstones: cultural and artistic synergies, a shared commitment to excellence and football development, the statement said.
In addition Visit Rwanda branding will be displayed at the Parc des Princes Stadium, on the sleeve of Paris Saint-Germain women’s team, and on the back of training kits.
Fans of PSG will also be given the opportunity to savour award-winning Rwandan tea and coffee that will be served exclusively at the Parc des Princes starting next season, it said.
Marc Armstrong, Chief Partnership Officer at the French club, said: “We are delighted to welcome Rwanda into the Paris Saint-Germain family. With this partnership, we will deepen our engagement with fans in Africa”.
He added: “This multifaceted collaboration will showcase all Rwanda has to offer and create powerful partnerships to contribute to Rwanda’s impressive growth”.
Official estimates show that thanks to this partnership, close to two million visitors come to Rwanda for business and pleasure, discovering a clean, green country with welcoming people eager to share their unique culture.
In Rwanda, visitors enjoy some of the world’s finest coffee and tea while relaxing at awe-inspiring luxury eco-tourism properties.
Commenting on the partnership, Rwanda Development Board’s Chief Executive Officer Clare Akamanzi, said: “In the last twenty-five years, Rwanda has transformed from a nation known for tragedy to one vibrating with creativity and innovation.
“We invest part of our tourism revenues in strategic collaborations such as the one with Paris Saint-Germain because we understand the positive effect they have on the overall perception of the country globally,” she said.
This means attracting more tourism, boosting the export of Made in Rwanda products, creating more economic opportunities for our people and increasing jobs in our tourism industry and the larger ecosystem.
Today, 142,000 Rwandans are directly employed in the tourism industry, up from 90,000 in 2017.
Last year Rwanda received 1.7 million visitors to the country and Rwanda expects more this year, according to official statistics.
Rwanda registered a record $2 billion in investments and the authorities say they are confident that the partnership will boost more investments.
“We cannot wait for Paris Saint-Germain fans to get to know today’s Rwanda – an ambitious, modern country that has much to offer the world,” Akamanzi said.
In May 2018, Rwanda signed a similar three-year shirt sponsoring deal with Arsenal valued at $39 million under the “Visit Rwanda” brand.
Rwanda under Paul Kagame who incidentally is an Arsenal fan, is to market the country’s image abroad and boost tourism, a sector accounted for about 12.7 percent of its GDP in 2017 and raked in $400 million in revenue that year.
CU/as/APA