Visit Rwanda Campaign and Sponsorship Extension with Arsenal, PSG: Any Lesson for Nigeria?
A few weeks ago, Football London reported that English top-flight soccer outfit Arsenal signed a partnership extension with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB). The new contract with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) is set to run for four years. The reported renewal will see the ‘Visit Rwanda’ logo continue to feature on the Premier League club’s left sleeve.
The partnership between Arsenal and RDB started back in 2018 when Visit Rwanda became the Gunners’ official tourism partner, as well as the club’s first sleeve sponsor. That contract was reportedly worth UK£30 million (US$41.4 million) over three years.
Football London’s report added that the new agreement with RDB will run until 2025 and is worth up to UK£10 million (US$13.8 million) a year, meaning the Gunners stand to earn UK£40 million (US$55.2 million) throughout the partnership.
Arsenal is not the only European top soccer team partnering with RDB. The body has also been partnering with the French mega soccer team, Paris-Saint Germain (PSG). RDB is poised to renew its three-year deal with PSG struck in 2019. The deal involved branding on the French soccer giants’ training kit.
The deals also involved the French giants promoting the East African country through the famous visit Rwanda slogan and displaying products and messages on Rwanda at the stadium.
The deal with PSG was speculated to be around 44.4 million dollars and in return, the country grew its tourism and destination marketing revenue by 88 million dollars in just the first year.
They say that advertising never lies, this is certainly true given -“visit Rwanda “ campaign has highly promoted the Rwanda brand.. The campaign is changing tourism, travel and businesses in Rwanda in diverse ways
BENEFITS
The country’s tourist attractions are now gaining more exposure.
Volcanoes national park, Lake Kivu, Akagera national park, Nyungwe forest national park, Gorilla naming festival, and all other attractions are at great exposure because of the eye-balls that view arsenal. Arsenal is one of the strongest football teams around the world with fans all over the world. People make several searches about Arsenal by going to the arsenal’s website and other media platforms; people watch videos about soccer and listen to any soccer news. All of that is great for any brand that associates itself with the team, as soccer fans are be able to view them. And because of that partnership, a lot of people search for destination Rwanda which has aided in giving it more exposure.
More Bookings
The visit Rwanda campaign is changing the face of tourism in Rwanda through more booking. More and more tourists are booking tours to Rwanda. The only secret that most tour operators have to do is to continue crafting different ranges of itineraries because it is only those with enough and all the itineraries that are getting the deals.
There is a surge in the tourism industry.
The tourism industry has seen growth as a result of the visit Rwanda campaign. Hotels, lodges, and other accommodations are seeing an increase in room occupancy rate, the situation is becoming an all-year peak season in Rwanda. More people are being employed to take create souvenirs for the tourists.
Nigeria as a country as well as some of her component states like Lagos, Ogun, Cross River, Akwa Ibom have been mouthing hopes and plans to step up their destination marketing activities and project their tourism capacities. Indeed Nigeria has unveiled at least three different nation branding and rebranding campaigns leading starting with the Heart of Africa project. None went beyond the government that started it.
Some states have equally made efforts at branding their destination with most programmes ending with the unveiling ceremonies with no concrete plans to consolidate the destination branding efforts. A state like Cross River under Governor Donald Duke made some impressive moves pushing the Calabar Carnival into the global tourism calendar and elevating the Obudu Holiday Resort to global standards.
Regrettably, those efforts were never sustained as subsequent governments in Calabar failed to maintain the tempo. An organisation last year reported a situation two years ago that went viral. From the nice stories and reports they heard about Obudu resort, they decided to hold their annual retreat there.
They made their bookings and the entire team landed in Calabar. The first shocker was the non-existence of the flying shuttle and the hanging rail transportation system advertised over the years.
The team however could not endure any more when the management requested that they make do with candles when power failed because they were planning to fix the power plant the following morning. The entire team had to relocate to a neighbouring state the following morning. No country or state can grow as a destination brand when its flag-ship destination points are allowed to deteriorate to this level.
If Lagos was a country, it would be at least four times bigger than Rwanda. Besides Rwanda came out of a chequered history of genocide and they depended heavily on foreign aids yet they decided to think big.
LESSONS
Think Big
Any country, state, or city that wants to become an outstanding destination brand should not be scared to think big. It is always by keeping one eye on the global stage that one can attract international relevance.
The proud moment in Rwanda currently is about the renewed deal Rwanda Tourism has signed with English Football Club Arsenal. In this new three-year sponsorship deal, Visit Rwanda will continue to feature on the jersey sleeves of the players. This will give a tremendous boost to the image of the country, With an English Premier League viewership of 3 billion people globally, reaching out to a large number of audiences is the dream Rwanda believes is important for tourism and destination branding.
Get The Right Expertise
Thinking big is not always a product of a meeting of the state or federal executive council. It comes from persistent brainstorming from various experts. There are no records of any other African country signing any publicity contract with a top-flight European soccer team before now. Picking the sleeves, identifying the teams, and other details were all backed up with specific reasons and the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) had many experts assisting it in decision making and execution of the plans. I have not heard of any state or even federal government set up a team of experts that can serve as the backbone of the agency of government overseeing destination branding and tourism. Doing this would be a lesson Nigeria as well her sub-national components can learn from Rwanda.
Focus on Your area of strength
Rwanda strengthened its national carrier, Rwanda Air, and a new international standard airport was built in 2019. The aim was to position the country as an airline hub. More than 12 Five Star hotels managed by global management companies have started in the capital Kigali in the past five years. The convention centre that was completed in 2016 has positioned Kigali as a conference hub. Rwanda had set itself up as a meeting and convention hub for east and central Africa. They knew that as a land lock country, they do not have beaches to promote water tourism, medical, sports tourism or cultural destination would not be their strength so they identified an area of comparative advantage pushed all their energy into it. Even the slogan “ Visit Rwanda” was for that purpose as well. Little wonder the country’s GDP then will automatically double every four years. A destination marketing plan that tries to be all things to all people will not go far. This is a vital lesson from the destination success of Rwanda.
Get Everyone Involved
One of the first things that baffle anyone who visits Rwanda is how clean it is. At the airport, you are scrutinised for plastic bags. The streets are clean. Building good drainage and service ducts for wires is equally important as building roads. The key is that virtually all citizens have become the country’s brand ambassador, doing everything to position Rwanda as a destination “heaven”. Painting road markers is not an indication of the completion of building roads, it is a perennial exercise. The toilets in offices government or private are as clean as the ones in restaurants. Cleanliness has become a day-to-day habit integrated into the life of all citizens, not once a month on Environment Day. Citizens have grown up learning that being neat and clean are key behaviours that will help the economy to grow. Citizens rarely run down their government t or refer to the genocide The summary is that citizens’ enlightenment received premium attention and it is paying off. A vital lesson for all those who desire to excel in destination branding.
Keep an Eye on the global stage
Rwanda hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2020 barely eight years after joining the Commonwealth. Rwanda also pushes to lead the Organisation of French Speaking countries. Rarely is a country in the middle of both Commonwealth and Francophone country activities.. It strives to be on the global centre stage as a country from Africa that strives to be a hub for business, trade, commerce, and connectivity. A country, which a decade ago moved to English as its second official language from French, is creating a workforce that has the key value system engraved along with great pride about the country they belong. The lesson here is that in today’s globalised world, it is not about appearing on social media pages of your fellow country people, but emerging at the centre of global discourse.
It is commendable that an aspiring destination brand leader like Lagos is planning the position itself to use the Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival. LAIF and other related platforms to project the brand on the international stage. However, in doing this, a holistic approach would be recommended so that long-term goals covering five or ten years would be outlined to ensure that the state consolidates on the brand equity it will gain from current partnerships.