Tourism Agency Strategize to Increase Local and International Numbers

By Julius Mwabonje

Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com

Kenya Tourism Board has announced grand plans that will increase its international tourism numbers by over five million tourists this year.

The KTB chief executive officer (CEO) June Chepkemei said currently Kenya has a record eight million tourists including 5.2 million domestic and 2.7 million foreign tourists.

Speaking in Malindi, she said their aim was to see a growth of foreign tourists hit 5.5 million this financial year which would help double the bed occupancy in the country.

According to her the feedback from industry players to government points to the right direction and right policy intervention helping to boost the numbers through access, marketing, and capacity building among stakeholders of the largest employer of young people in the country.

“So, we welcome this engagement. We will continue to engage with the private sector as government so that we have a more collaborative and better coordination of tourism between the government, private sector the academia and the nonstate actors,” she said.

Currently, she said they have embraced digital first with a focus of 70 percent of marketing efforts going to digital.

She said they have segmented their source market so as to have more targeted tourism.

“With the tools that we currently have both emerging technology and traditional media we are able to now have a more targeted approach to promoting Kenya as Magical Kenya unlike previous years where we had a mass approach towards marketing.”

So far, she said, their marketing was targeted not only from geographical location but including different experiences, desires, patterns and trends of travellers across the demographic.

The CEO said the future of growth of tourism numbers would not only come from access but from Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE).

The government is leading in putting up the infrastructure to grow MICE as seen at Bomas international Convention centre while the private sector is opening up the Coastal region through Tembo convention sector in Mombasa.

“As KTB, our role is to Market Kenya as the preferred MICE destination and we are going to work closely with the office of permanent principal, cabinet secretary, the private sector, and stakeholders to ensure bidding is our daily focus. We want to continuously bid and get more numbers, more tourists, more conventions and we will also work on incentives that will then support the growth of MICE because that seem to be the trajectory that will help us get the numbers.”

She said they would continue engaging with the counties so as to develop more tourism products and continue investing in experience tourism products so as to attract more tourists.

While welcoming the idea of government incentives to increase tourism numbers, industry players in Kilifi County said there were so many attractions that are yet to be fully explored that gives tourists a lifetime experience.

Maureen Awuor, the general manager of Ocean Beach Resort and Spa in Malindi and chairperson of north coast region Kenya Hotel keepers and Caterers Association, said in Malindi and Mamburui there were new tourism gems including the Kenyan Dubai which is becoming a major tourism attraction.

“Malindi has so much to see am sure so many of them have never had of Mamburui sand dunes that is one of our focus right now we have brought Dubai to Kenya and is something for experiencing,” she said.

According to her there is also snorkelling, whale watching, and new investments on sports tourism to attract sports tourists in the area and specifically golf tournaments that seek to add into the basket of tourism attraction packages for Malindi.

Kene Kiplagat, the chairman of Hippo Campus and Camp Gedeng in Sabaki River estuary in Magarini, said tourism numbers were increasing particularly young foreign tourists coming in large numbers as opposed to previous tourists who were pensioners.

“Normally we used to get pensioners and the other senior groups but this time We Road has come with a new group of young energetic gentlemen and gentle women and they are here because they are also taking care of animals in their own country and we are exchanging ideas on how we can conserve this area,” he said.

The chairman said being at the end of Athi River, tourists should also add into their bucket list to come and visit where the river pours into the Indian Ocean.