{"id":2341,"date":"2026-07-14T15:41:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/?p=2341"},"modified":"2026-07-14T15:41:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:41:27","slug":"rwanda-signs-aston-villa-sponsorship-deal-to-expand-visit-rwanda-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/rwanda-signs-aston-villa-sponsorship-deal-to-expand-visit-rwanda-campaign\/politics\/national\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda signs Aston Villa sponsorship deal to expand Visit Rwanda campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Rwanda has signed a sponsorship agreement with English Premier League club Aston Villa that will see the Visit Rwanda tourism brand displayed on the front of the team’s jerseys, as the country continues to use global sports partnerships to promote tourism and investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal, announced Tuesday by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), makes Visit Rwanda Aston Villa’s official tourism partner and places the country’s tourism brand on the club’s match shirts, replacing betting company Betano as the front-of-shirt sponsor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The partnership adds Aston Villa to a growing list of international sports organizations associated with Rwanda’s global marketing campaign, which aims to raise the country’s profile as a tourism destination and investment hub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aston Villa, based in Birmingham, England, confirmed the agreement and said the partnership would support its commercial growth while creating opportunities for collaboration with Rwanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club’s Chief Commercial Officer, Francesco Calvo, who was appointed in July 2025 to expand Aston Villa’s commercial partnerships, said Visit Rwanda branding would appear on the team’s shirts during the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement includes tourism promotion, business collaboration and efforts to showcase products from Rwanda. The Rwanda Development Board said the partnership represents one of the country’s major international sports marketing agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rwanda launched the Visit Rwanda campaign internationally in 2018 through a partnership with Arsenal. Since then, the country has expanded the campaign through agreements with several major sports organizations, including German club Bayern Munich, French club Paris Saint-Germain, Spanish side Atl\u00e9tico de Madrid and the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The partnership with Arsenal ended after the completion of its agreement, while Rwanda’s other sports partnerships remain active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, Rwanda signed agreements with the Los Angeles Clippers and the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, becoming the first African country to partner with teams from both major U.S. professional sports leagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest deal comes as Rwanda continues efforts to strengthen the global reach of Visit Rwanda. In June, RDB announced plans to work with marketing agencies to promote the campaign in European markets including France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Spain, Italy and Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tourism is a key contributor to Rwanda’s economy. RDB reported that the sector generated more than $685 million in revenue in 2025, up from $647 million in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rwanda says its sports partnerships have helped increase international awareness of the country while supporting efforts to attract visitors, investment and business opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rwanda has signed a sponsorship agreement with English Premier League club Aston Villa that will see the Visit Rwanda tourism brand displayed on the front […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,38,53,41,39,34,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current_affairs","category-facts_on_rwanda","category-featured-stories","category-hot_topics","category-live_updates","category-national","category-top_stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2344,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions\/2344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}