Kenya to tap Africa’s potentials to boost tourism
Magical Kenya Tourism Expo 2018
Kenya’s tourism marketers have formulated plans to consider Africa as a key regional market to grow its tourism business, a senior official said.
“We are actively engaging with travel agents and tour operators in Nigeria to expose them to the diverse tourist offering in Kenya and the rest of East Africa that would be of interest to travellers from Nigeria and the rest of West Africa,” said Betty Radier, Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) CEO. She was talking to the media at the ‘Magical Kenya Travel Expo’ in Nairobi.
Radier said bilateral discussions were going on between the tourism ministries of Kenya and Sierra Leone to establish collaboration and travel from Sierra Leone to Kenya.
About 150 tourism buyers and 20 international media personalities are in the country during the three-day expo, which kick started on Wednesday, 3rd October 2018.
Betty Radier, Kenya Tourism Board CEO
Radier has said the expo has enabled Kenya to bring together major players of tourism industry in Africa to get a better insight of the diverse and authentic tourism products that Kenya has to offer.
“The expo has drawn the participation of travel trade partners from across Africa and enabled Kenya to participate in the efforts to develop a unified brand for Africa as a tourist destination,” said Radier.
MKTE 2018 Organizing Team
As per the records of Kenyan Tourism Board, Africa is currently Kenya’s second biggest source market by region, having contributed 29 per cent of total tourist arrivals to Kenya in 2017. Uganda contributes around 6.4 per cent tourists in Africa during 2017.
Tourism is the second largest source of foreign exchange revenue for Kenya after tea, with the main tourist attractions being photo safaris through national parks and game reserves, though the country has been diversifying to other areas like eco-tourism, conference tourism and cultural tourism.