Tourism banks on global summit to reverse dwindling fortunes

This week’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit will present a huge opportunity for Kenya’s struggling tourism.

Preceding other key events that will see thousands of high profile business delegations visit Nairobi, the summit will be the ignition needed to reawaken the sector from its sickbed. The sector has been battered by a series of insecurity incidents, which attracted travel advisories from key source markets.

The Tourism ministry says the country is prepared to make a lasting impression on the visitors at the summit.
Tourism Principal Secretary Ibrahim Mohamed said special packages have been designed in collaboration with tour operators to enable the Global Entrepreneurs Summit (GSE) visitors enjoy all the facilities at the “most economically friendly and convenient ways”.

“We are all set in terms of logistics and everything we need to properly welcome the visitors. Those wishing to visit any of the sites across the country will be facilitated seamlessly, including where air transport will be required,” Mr Mohamed told Smart Company.

“We have involved all our service providers to ensure that every experience they get will win us more visitors when they travel back home.”
Indeed Kenya will have an opportunity to shine across the word as global media attention turns to Nairobi. The spotlight will focus on the summit particularly because it will be attended by US President Barack Obama and a host of prominent business titans.

The 3,000 delegates who will visit Kenya this weekend could be turned into crucial ambassadors for the tourism industry, which has suffered multiple blows from terrorist attacks.

President Obama’s delegation will comprise about 200 journalists who will show the world what Kenya has to offer.

The Kenya Tourism Board has since taken journalists on a tour of various attraction sites to make them adequately informed and hence become agents of good news to the visitors.

The trade summit precedes the African Travel Tours Conference in October and the World Public Relations forum in November as well as the World Trade Organisation forum set for December.

In all these events, Kenya will be hosting a total of at least 15,000 business delegates whose spending will be between $3,000 and $5,000.

Tourism, which has been Kenya’s second highest foreign exchange earner, touched its lowest ebb last year after source markets kept off in response to travel advisories.

International tourist arrivals declined by 11.1 per cent between 2013 and 2014 as the sector’s earnings shed 7.3 per cent to Sh87.1 billion from Sh94 billion during the period.

The ministry says it is engaging various strategies to reverse the dwindling tourist numbers. An inter-ministerial team formed last year to address the sector’s woes is said to be making progress.

Transport and infrastructure ministry is improving roads leading to the parks and enhancing aviation infrastructure to enable holidaymakers to reach their destinations conveniently.

“We are in talks with several airlines including Qatar, Rwanda Air and Etihad to fly directly to Mombasa and the ministry of Transport is facilitating that. We already have Ethiopian Airlines flying directly to Mombasa and we hope to have many other licensed chartered aircraft to deliver tourists to various parts of the country,” Mr Mohamed said.

The ministry is also upbeat about next month’s inaugural direct flight from China to Kenya by the China Southern Airlines as well as the anticipated return of German airline Lufthansa.

GONE THROUGH THE BAD PART

In this year’s budget, the tourism sector, which employs over 700,000 people, received a Sh5.2 billion to boost its recovery efforts.
“I am very positive that tourism will fully recover in the next two years. We have gone through the bad part and we have done what it takes to curb insecurity, which was our main drawback,” Mr Mohamed said.

“We are also marketing Kenya using these gains and we have already seen travel advisories being removed by Britain. The future can only be brighter.”

The ministry says the budgetary allocation will help step up marketing in both traditional and new source markets. Plans are underway to modernise the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) as well as build another conference centre in Mombasa as the country bets big on business tourism.

Last year, Kenya sent representatives to Nigeria, South Africa, Japan, UK, US and Germany to rejuvenate traditional source market as well as scout for new sources of holidaymakers.

Ambassadors in various countries have also been tasked with marketing Kenya as a favourite destination. They are also required to update the diaspora on the security situation in order to curb jitters caused by “misinformation”.

The ministry is in talks with relevant agencies to cut park entry fees.

“Kenyans need to start travelling outside the major cities and their home counties to enjoy our tourism attraction. We’re also working with counties to develop other tourism products that we can market, especially on cultural tourism,” the PS said.

“We are encouraging them through Tembea Kenya campaigns and we are trying to eliminate the notion that domestic tourism is expensive. The growing middle class here is yet another opportunity we must tap.”

Kenya will also diversify tourism products packages to include medical tourism (especially in the eastern Africa) sports tourism — Golf and athletics, among others in an effort to revive the once-vibrant sector.

Last year, the government cut landing charges by 40 per cent at Moi International Airport and Malindi Airport to shore up tourist’s arrivals at the Coast. The move however did not bear fruits.

Tourists who arrived through Moi International Airport in Mombasa dropped by 39.2 per cent to 118,000 in 2014 from 194,200 in 2013. Consequently, a number of hotels shut down causing massive job losses.

On a positive note, however, the British government withdrew travel advisories last month ending Kenya’s two-year wait for good news from one of its traditional source markets.

Britain now limits travel to places 60km along the porous Kenya-Somalia border, an area which has sparse population and is rarely gets tourists.

“I do not see why too much emphasis should be placed on Kenya’s security, which is largely very safe,” said British High Commissioner to Kenya Christian Turner.

“Tourists can now visit places like Mombasa, Malindi and Kilifi which were high risk. We will continue assisting Kenya in the terrorism war.”