Kenya has set its tourism marketing sights on India and Spain, seeking to attract the new markets in Asia and Europe to boost its tourism growth to reach 2.5 million arrivals by the next three years.
The Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) said this week that it will be leading local travel agents on marketing missions to India and Spain, looking to woo Indian and Spanish tourists to visit Kenya.
More than 10 Kenyan travel trade partners will are exhibiting Kenya’s tourist attractions in Mumbai, India. The travel trade partners are in a pitch tent at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai to woo travelers to Kenya at the three-day Outbound Travel Mart (OTM).
OTM is a leading travel show in the Asia-Pacific region which acts as a gateway to India’s largest travel markets which Kenya is now targeting; officials in Nairobi told the Business Daily earlier this week.
KTB chief executive Betty Radier said that India remains a crucial outbound market through which Kenya can continue to grow its tourism arrival figures that reached about 125,032 visits last year, a 6.17 percent growth compared to the previous year.
India is ranked among Kenya’s top five tourist source markets from the Asian continent and is considered among the fastest growing outbound travel market. Indian outbound travel market is expected to reach 50 million visits in 2020.
“India is an important market for Kenya and we have lined up other initiatives and investments that would boost brand awareness through sports such as Cricket, golf, as well as film making” said Ms Radier.
She said that KTB will this week be hosting Filmfare, one of the most famous Bollywood magazine for a shoot on diverse tourism products and experiences in Kenya presenting an opportunity for film makers to showcase this African nation as a filming destination. India is ranked among Kenya’s top five tourist source markets from Asia.
Kenya’s 2018 tourist arrivals grew by 37.33 percent from the previous year to cross the two million mark for the first time, posting significant growth in earnings to Sh157 billion. The latest statistics show that over two million tourists had visited this African nation during year 2018.
Recording a positive growth in the tourism and aviation sectors, Kenya is now signaling a new trend in East African tourism development over the next 10 years with a projection of up to six percent (6%) annual growth.
Reports from Nairobi indicate that tourism growth has been recorded to surpass other economic sectors.
Ndị otu World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) report shows that Kenya’s travel and tourism industry is larger than mining, chemical, and automotive manufacturing sectors combined. The economic value of the business and leisure travel sector accounts for 10 percent of Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is almost the same size as Kenya’s banking sector, the report had shown.
