Tag: kenya tourism

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has expressed satisfaction with the measures being taken by stakeholders in the hospitality sector to protect tourists from the coronavirus pandemic. He said Kenya is ready to receive tourists and encouraged local and foreign travellers to take advantage of the prevailing low rates to visit the country’s famous tourist sites, says a report by CGTN Africa. “I want to take this opportunity to encourage every single Kenyan to take advantage and to travel…You can travel, you can move,” the President said. “And now as you know, we have also opened up our skies and flights are ... Read more

Kenya Airways resumed international flights on Saturday, heading to about 30 destinations for the first time since the routes were suspended in March due to the coronavirus, Reuters has reported. The carrier, in which Air France KLM holds a small stake, resumed domestic flights in mid-July after the government cleared local air travel. “We announced we are starting with 27 destinations, we increased it to 30 just following demand,” Allan Kilavuka, the airline’s chief executive officer, said during a ceremony ahead of seeing off a flight to London. He said for the rest of the year the airline expected demand ... Read more

Kenya’s cabinet secretary for tourism, Najib Balala, has urged industry players to make tourism more affordable for domestic and international travellers.  Balala made the remarks in an interview with local television channel, Citizen, where he lamented the high cost of tourism in the East African country. “This is the problem I have with the industry. We have overpriced ourselves. And if you look at Kenya – people come here once in a lifetime. Why do we have to get people once in a lifetime? Because it is very expensive to come to Kenya,” he said. Balala noted that the high ... Read more

Kenya is set to make a major change in the way it markets its tourism products, by shifting from the traditional television and print media to digital and social media. Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) on Thursday hosted a webinar that brought together sectoral players to discuss the importance and gains that would be accrued, by utilising the digital space to market destinations, according to a report by The Star. Players said the use of social media marketing is overdue and has been reinforced by how COVID-19 has disrupted the tourism industry in the last three months. Betty Radier, chief executive ... Read more

Kenya is targeting 15 per cent growth in tourist arrivals from India in 2019, through various promotional activities, easy visa process and good connectivity. As per Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) director of market development Jacinta Nzioka, 1.25 lakh Indian tourists travelled to Kenya in 2018, making the country the fifth largest source market. Jacinta Nzioka, Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) Director United States of America (USA) is the biggest tourism source market for Kenya with 2.25 lakh travellers, accounting for 11.12 per cent market share, followed by Tanzania with 10.48 per cent market share. Uganda and United Kingdom (UK) are at the ... Read more

Recently people are interested to visit slums and areas where poor people dwell. The practice is getting popularity in Africa, where the organizers of such visits name it as ‘slum tourism’ or ‘poverty tourism’. However, most of the residents are against this practice as it is affecting their dignity. Some have already protested and said they feel like wildlife. Kibera Slum, Kenya Slum tourism actually dates back more than 150 years, when the upper Victorian class travelled from London to the east of the city to see how the lower class lived. It is said that slum tourism in Africa ... Read more

Kenya’s tourism revenue crossed USD 1.55 billion during the year 2018, which is 31.26 per cent more than that of 2017 amounts. Najib Balala, cabinet secretary in the ministry of tourism and wildlife, said international visitor arrivals also increased by 37 per cent, counting around 2.02 million in 2018. “Kenya’s tourism performance for the year 2018 has seen a substantial improvement compared to 2017 in both tourism arrivals, domestic tourism performance and earnings,” said Balala who was presenting the tourism sector performance report 2018 to President Uhuru Kenyatta in Mombasa. He said that domestic tourism bed occupancy increased from 3.64 ... Read more

Narok County Government in South West Kenya has partnered with Reuters Plus, the branded content studio of a multimedia news provider, to launch ‘Moments of Wonder’, a global campaign documenting the evolving world of Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve and surrounding conservancies. The programme showcases the benefits tourism brings to the region. These include new opportunities for the Maasai people, female empowerment and the creation of local guardians who are protecting the remarkable wildlife for future generations. The ‘Moments of Wonder’ campaign comprises a digital interactive experience, including five videos and six first-person articles exploring the lives of the Maasai, ... Read more

Kenya tourism seeks the help of hotliers for driving the marketing campaign of the country.  Najib Balala, Tourism secretary has met with hotliers to discuss the marketing programmes. Top hoteliers of the country have been appointed by the tourism secretary to help with the development of tourism by formulating marketing strategies for a sector that suffered a series of terrorism attacks, which discouraged foreign tourists to visit the country for several years. The hoteliers have to feed the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) with the new trends in Kenya’s tourism sector to help promote the country as business and leisure travel ... Read more

Non-stop flights between Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and John F Kennedy International Airport in New York will be launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta on 28th October 2018. Though the inauguration of the direct flight is 10 days away, the vibe around it has warmed US travellers, who have made Kenya a sought after destination, surpassing the rival tourists locations such as Mexico, Italy and Europe. As per local media, bookings for December to Kenya were up by about 28 per cent from last year’s with one operator saying it had placed around USD 8 million worth of business to ... Read more

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 ... Read more

  The Oberoi group is planning to start three resorts – one in Kenya and two in India- to explore benefits of wild life tourism. As per reports, The EIH group, one of the giants in the hospitality industry, will start a luxury resort on the outskirts of Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Named as The Oberoi Wildlife Resort, the new hospitality center will spread on a 5000-acre site overlooking the Mara valley offering views of Mara Triangle and annual migration of animals from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania into the Maasai Mara in search of green pasture.. ... Read more

Kenya plans to set up a network of marine museums across the country to enhance tourism. Caesar Bita, Head of Underwater Archaeology at the National Museums of Kenya, told the media that the museums will be located offshore along the Indian Ocean coastline, major lakes and rivers. Kenya’s underwater cultural heritage will be collected, preserved and displayed in the museums in order to boost the tourism sector,” Bita said on the sidelines of the Fifth World Congress of Geoversal Civilization, which runs from July 16 to 21, aims to promote cooperation among world civilizations. The marine museums will also provide ... Read more

Kenya is all set for the ‘Maesabit-Lake Turkana Cultural Festival’ which is into its 12th  year.  The event, to be held at Loyangalani town,  is a celebration of a cluster of 14 communities that form a larger unity of Marsabit County’s total strength. The event, started in 2008 and conducted annually at Lake Turkana from 28th to 30th June 2018. Lake Turkana, the largest desert lake in the world, often termed ‘The Jade Sea,’ is a World Heritage Site. El Molo, Rendille, Samburu, Turkana, Dassanatch, Gabra, Borana, Konso, Sakuye, Garee, Waata, Burji, Somali etc are the communities. Photo Courtesy: Youtube.com Speciality of the ... Read more