NAIROBI: The Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) this week held discussions with the Dubai Cooperation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing at their offices in Dubai. The meeting was a debut session that involved information sharing and establishing possible areas of collaboration aimed at increasing traffic from Dubai to Kenya and vice versa.
KTB was represented by Ag. Marketing Manager in charge of the Rest of Africa, Ms. Fatma Bashir and the PR and Corporate Communications Manager, Wausi Walya. Ms. Bashir confirmed the number of visitors from UAE has been on the increase. “We have seen tremendous growth in the past couple of the years and we are and we are keen to do more to continue growing the numbers,” said Ms. Bashir.
Kenya received about 35,000 visitors from the UAE between January and August 2015 compared to 18,500 visitors the same period the prior year. Some of the factors that favor the destination are the flight connectivity and the presence of a large expatriate community in Dubai that wants to experience the rich tourism product in Kenya.
In addition, KTBs presence in the market that allows continuous interaction with stakeholders and the recent launch of the ‘Choose Kenya’ campaign in the UAE among other strategies has contributed to this growth.
The Regional Director for Arica, Stella Obinwa who represented the Department of Tourism and Commerce, Dubai, said the session was a welcome move in establishing possible areas of collaboration. She confirmed that Dubai as a tourism destination was keen on growing its numbers from Africa and that indeed reaching out to other tourism marketing agen-cies was an option they are considering.
“We are keen on the possible participation at this year’s Magical Kenya Travel EXPO as a debut engagement that serves as an entry point of our discussions,” said Ms. Obinwa in response to the invitation extended to the Dubai to grace the EXPO. “Dubai is deliberately focusing on Africa and we are keen to co-llaborate with willing partners.”
She reiterated how the partn-erships between tourism boards and national carriers was key in growing visitor numbers. Kenya will host the fifth MKTE in Diani from October 15th to 17th.
The Expo is key in positioning and showcase what Kenya has to offer, as an up-market, high-value and safe destination offering unparalleled diversity of tourism experiences.
The meeting was held at the end of a 10 day long training session that KTB conducted in partnership with Kenya Airways and Wakanow, one of West Africa’s largest online tour operators. “We can confidently confirm from the interactions that KTB has had in Ghana, Nigeria and Dubai that Kenya is still top on many visitors bucket list and a favorite for repeat visitors.
“We have champions of the destination in those that we have reached out to and are certain that the various audiences reached through training, meetings and media will translate into more awareness and more visitors into the country.
“The image of Kenya has gained very positive ground and we are keen to leverage in this to get tourism back on track,” said PR Manager, Ms. Walya. Kenya’s image has improved immensely through various endorsements in various global platforms in the recent past.
