Kenya woos tourists and investors in US festival

Kenya will showcase the country’s culture and host an investment conference at this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC. The event seeks to attract tourists and foreign investors.

The fete is expected to reassure both tourists and investors in the country especially at a time when arrivals have been on the decline due to terror-related attacks.

A delegation of over 100 Kenyans from different cultural groups, sculptors and some of the country’s top athletes will attend the fete. The meeting provides an opportunity for Americans and the world at large to experience Kenya’s rich and diverse culture as well as natural resources.

Dubbed “Kenya Mambo Poa!,” the event will feature entertainment, crafts as well as a trade and investment conference. It is organised by the Ministry of Sports and Culture.

“We intend to clean up the stereotypes that have been mostly created by the international media about Kenya,” said Sports and Culture Cabinet secretary Hassan Wario.

RISING INSECURITY

“We also hope to generate interest in cultural tourism; to create interest in human origin and tell the world that Kenya is possibly their ancestral land.”

The US is Kenya’s second single largest source of tourists after the UK.

The Smithsonian Festival exhibition comes at a time when Kenya, which depends on tourism for a sizeable chunk of its foreign exchange earnings, is grappling with rising insecurity.

International arrivals decreased by 11.2 per cent to 1.52 million in 2013 from 1.7 million recorded in 2012. Consequently, earnings dropped 2.1 per cent to Sh94 billion, according to the Economic Survey 2014.

The Smithsonian Festival is an annual 10-day event that draws over 1.5 million visitors to the heart of the US political capital — Washington, DC. It will run from June 25 to 29 and July 2 to 6. Kenya is the fifth African country to be featured in the Folklife Festival.