Let’s do more in conference tourism

When you mention tourism in Kenya, the thing that comes to mind is wildlife, culture and natural beaches.

Kenya is highly favoured with great weather, phenomenal geographical sites, white sandy beaches and various tourist attractions that have seen millions of foreigners visit. It has also been tapping into golf, sports and film tourism in a bid to diversify offerings.

However, recent years have been marked by considerable change in the meetings industry in terms of venues. This has seen the conferencing industry exponentially growing worldwide, culminating into billions of dollars in revenue.

Conference tourism is one of the industry’s lead revenue generator in the world. This is the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (Mice) sector, which has led to new opportunities in business tourism.

WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS

In 2016, Nairobi was voted Africa’s leading meetings and conference destination at the World Travel Awards following several high-profile meetings and conferences. The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) also ranked Kenya as the second-best destination for conference tourism in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa.

In Africa, South Africa and Rwanda have been the dominant forces in conferencing owing to their rigorous marketing, good infrastructure and excellent service in the hospitality industry.

Conferencing has been riding on the conventional tourism industry structure, getting its greatest support from the local hospitality institutions, stadiums and academic institutions to meet the demand.

INCENTIVE TRAVEL

There are more than 3,000 meetings, incentive travel, conference and events facilities in form of hotels, lodges, learning institutions, conference centres and stadiums in Kenya with conference facilities of varying capacities. The Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in eastern Africa and still has an unexploited capacity.

Countries such as Rwanda are quickly picking up and laying claim to the international conferences. Rwanda has made considerable growth in the hospitality sector and is on course to become a hub for international conferences in Africa. This year, it will host, on average, two international conferences monthly, raking in $60 million (Sh6 billion) after hosting about 22,000 conference delegates.

There are numerous benefits to conference tourism — in addition to creating employment in line with SDG 8 to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Unfortunately, the full potential of Mice has not been exploited in Kenya.

HOST CITIES

The people who attend conferences have their bills paid; so, they have money to spend in the host cities. In addition, growth of investments in business tourism leads to positive transformation of the economy.

Adoption of new technology, the physical design of meeting and networking spaces and the greater emphasis on experience creation have sparked a shift in selection of venues. Delegate engagement is taking precedence away from presentation and lecture style meetings to interactive sessions to create memorable experiences. Conference apps, social media campaigns and audience participation apps were the top three technologies over the past five years.

In 2014, the government announced plans to construct the biggest convention centre in Africa.

PRESIDENTIAL PAVILIONS

The Bomas International Conference and Exhibitions Centre project, on 82 acres of land, will cost $561 million (Sh57 billion). Located next to the Bomas of Kenya, it will have presidential pavilions, five luxury hotels, a conference centre with a 10,000-delegate capacity, 15,000 exhibition space, coffee shops and other amenities.

This year, Kenya is set to hold the Skal World Congress meeting in Mombasa and the Africa Sign Digital and Printing Expo in Nairobi. Compared to Rwanda, we are not doing very well in this sector. The bidding committee, if there is one, should put more effort in reaching out and ensuring Kenya is the preferred venue.

Among the most notable recent meetings and conferences in Nairobi are the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), the World Trade Organization (WTO) 10th Ministerial Conference (2015) and Unctad 14 (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) and the 6th Tokyo Investment Conference on Africa Development (Ticad) in 2016.

BIDDING COMMITTEE

These have positioned Kenya as an important conference tourism player.

We need to embrace conference tourism and ensure we have a working bidding committee that will help to grow this industry.

Oh, Visit Rwanda just dropped the mic on us...they are the Official Tourism Partner, sleeve sponsors, for Arsenal Football Club in 2018/2019. Enough said!

Ms Chege is a public relations consultant based in Nairobi. [email protected]