One-stop shop for tourism sites in East Africa launched

What you need to know:

  • “We plan to work with relevant industry players in the region to provide as much information as possible on the destinations found in East Africa,” Ms Ndwiga told Smart Company.
  • The website, whose physical offices are in Nairobi, enables investors in tourism business to list the various categories of the services they provide.
  • Under accommodation are hotels, lodges, tented camps, self-catering centres, hostels and camping. Under food, food and drink are listed. Restaurants, bars, lounge and entertainment businesses, which provide food and drinks are also listed here.

A one-stop guide for tourism destinations and services in East Africa has been created.

The online platform — East Africa Tourism Guide (EATG) — seeks to bring together all tourism boards in the five East African Community member states to promote the industry regionally.

The guide’s founder, Ms Catherine Ndwiga, said the plan is to enhance revival of tourism in the region.

“We plan to work with relevant industry players in the region to provide as much information as possible on the destinations found in East Africa,” Ms Ndwiga told Smart Company.

The portal provides investors in the hospitality industry a chance to improve marketing of their products and services.

“It also offers unlimited Customer-to-Business (C2B), Business-to-Customer (B2C), and Business-to-Business (B2B) linkages that can be leveraged within our platform,” said Ms Ndwiga.

The website, whose physical offices are in Nairobi, enables investors in tourism business to list the various categories of the services they provide.

Hoteliers can also opt for the paid listing where they choose gold category, which costs Sh1,478 ($15) monthly or Sh17,746 ($180) annually. They can also choose platinum which goes for Sh1,971 ($20) monthly or Sh23,661 ($240) per year.

For the paid options, the participating companies get their deals mentioned on social media. They also get to enjoy features on e-newsletters. The primary categories are accommodation, food and attractions.

ACCOMMODATION

Under accommodation are hotels, lodges, tented camps, self-catering centres, hostels and camping. Under food, food and drink are listed. Restaurants, bars, lounge and entertainment businesses, which provide food and drinks are also listed here.

The attractions category contains parks and reserves, excursion sites, museums and monuments, lakes and outdoor activities. The travel section has tour operators, travel agents, car rentals, and flight operators.

Other groups include shopping centres, features as well as events.

“We are already accepting listings from the hospitality players as we look for more ways to reach out to our markets to drive up the number of arrivals into the region,” Ms Ndwiga said.

The creation of the platform was informed by various efforts from East African countries to market the bloc as a single destination.

“We also hope to ride on the major milestones the region has made to increase international arrivals into the region. These include single-tourism visa, opening up of borders between Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda where they use national ID as travel documents,” she said.

Ms Ndwiga has also revealed plans by the organisation to come up with an online platform targeting tourists.

“As soon as we have finalised with the fine details on setting the platform up, we will launch an app that will help tourists know which products to mix and match in order to ensure that they get value for their money,” she said.

EATG compliments efforts by the East Africa Tourism Platform, which is supported by Trademark East Africa through its programme of Public Sector Organisation/Civil Society Organisation.

The programme helps define priorities for trade, competitiveness and social welfare.