Kenya tourism receives exhibitor award at ITB

Kenya’s Tourism Board missed out narrowly to Rwanda at the just-concluded ITB 2015 but nevertheless lifted the runner up trophy as second best African exhibitor. The award will no doubt give an added boost to the confidence of Kenya’s tourism stakeholders who had come to Berlin to market and sell the country.

From first-hand experience while traveling along the Kenya coast, it is all but clear that the situation vis-a-vis room or bed occupancies is dire, and tourism policymakers and strategists have been scratching their combined heads in recent weeks regarding how to overcome market resistance and negative publicity and bring the crowds back to the award-winning beaches both south and north of Mombasa.

“The market responses were giving us hope that sometime later this year things will begin to improve for Kenya,” said a regular source before adding, “We may have another tough year ahead, but there is now some light at the end of the tunnel. Interest from around the world was very keen, and we built on the relationships we forged when we brought hosted buyers to our Magical Kenya Show. The same will happen again this year and KTB [Kenya Tourism Board] will also host more travel writers and journalists to tell the world of their experience when they visited. The Recovery Taskforce has handed in their report, and we expect that key elements will be approved by government very soon. We have waited for long about the VAT issue, traffic rights to Mombasa, and so much more that it would be too much to list here.

“As for me I agree with you that we need to reform the tourism act and bring all those parastatal bodies under one roof. What we now have is wastage, several authorities or agencies, and they all have the same back-of-house functions five or six times? That should change, and then we need government to put [its] money where [its] mouth is and fund KTB properly. We have seen and shown what we can do with money, and we just have to invest in a media blitz and e-campaign to get our old markets back. All those tourists surely had a good time, we want them to remember and come back again.”

With visitor numbers in 2014 once more down compared to an already depressed 2013 – final figures are still not available for the full calendar year – big challenges await Kenya’s tourism sector to put a new sheen on. Product upgrades is an issue raised time and again, as are niche markets which could bring in higher spenders, while for instance coming to play golf in Kenya. The full opening of the English Point Marina will no doubt also add another attraction to have yachting enthusiasts take a fresh look at Kenya as a second home, and the various festivals and events, when properly packaged and marketed, will also help to showcase the country as a revitalized destination.

“As long as security is assured, and there are no more lapses, we should be well on the road to recovery from winter 2015 onwards. Campaigns, however, must continue throughout 2015 and 2016 to avoid the mistakes the last government made when they thought that the elections would not be a factor in tourists’ decisions where to go. It is a factor, and we need to for once get ahead of the ball rather than continuously drop the ball as we have done in the past,” added another regular contributor.

Time will tell which way Kenya’s arrival numbers will go this year, but in the meantime this correspondent’s tour along the coast moves from Malindi to Watamu, an area renowned for the many conservation activities and projects by both local residents as well as NGOs.