A big boom within the tourism industry in Rwanda

The government in Rwanda aims to push tourism in bid to focus more attention on land-based initiatives, and also advocate a new law to legalise online gambling

After several months of lockdown and closed borders, Rwanda has officially reopened its borders to tourists again.  

Hotels, restaurants, shops, tour operators, national’s park and casinos reopened:

We all know how crucial tourism is for countries in development, and especially for Rwanda. Tourism generated over $88.3 million GDP in 2018. The highlight goes to the government as they launched a great strategy to attract tourist. Indeed, they signed a partnership deal with Arsenal FC, the English football club, in order to promote tourism in Rwanda. The partnership is for 3 years and consists of the advertising on the football shirts of each player with the mention “visit Rwanda”. It was effective from May 2018, and so far, has seen an increase of 8% in the number of visitors.  

Exciting news for the online industry:

This partnership with the English Football club was greatly helpful for the gambling segment, in spite of legislation appearing a few years ago and the handful of land-based casino within Rwanda. Online gambling is not regulated yet in Rwanda and is thus so far illegal. However, the government proposed a new project to legalise the online industry.  

With the novel COVID-19 pandemic, the regulation of online gambling became a priority for the country as all the land-based activities went thought a huge shutdown and experienced a big loss for the sector. The government is now on the way to vote for a new law which will legalise the online industry; aiming to mitigate the pandemic’s effect.  

About SiGMA Europe - Malta

SiGMA Group has announced the postponement of its Europe summit, which was planned to be held in Malta on 17-19 November 2020. The show will now open its doors early next year in February, running from the 16-18th, making it the first event to headline the 2021 gaming calendar.