Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) made a strategic appearance at the 20th Akwaaba Travel Market, West Africa’s premier travel expo, with plans to increase Nigerian tourist arrivals to the country. Josephine Mbela, KTB’s Assistant Deputy Director for Domestic & Africa, emphasized that Nigeria is a crucial market for the East African nation’s tourism industry.
Speaking in an interview with Journalists at the travel event, Mbela said Kenya has amazing tourist attractions that would excite Nigerian tourism enthusiasts wishing to explore the country’s rich tourism assets.
Except:
Can you please introduce yourself?
My name is Josephine Bela from the Kenya Tourism Board. Kenya Tourism Board is a government agency whose mandate is to market Kenya as a tourism destination.
Tell us your impression about the Akwaaba African Travel Market?
We decided to come to Akwaaba in Nigeria because Nigeria is one of our key markets and one market that we want to grow numbers into Kenya. This year we are focusing on attracting at least 50,000 Nigerians to visit Kenya, not only for holiday or safari that we are known for, but also honeymoon, adventure, staycation and family destination. So the reason we are here in Akwaaba is because it’s a platform that has been created for all African countries in the world to come and showcase what we have.
With me I have five partners, Kenya Airways, which is our national carrier and is the one we want to use to propel visitors from Nigeria, they can get direct flight to Nairobi. The other of our Hotel Partner is the Pride Inn Hotel. It is one of our key hotels that have footprints in Nairobi, Masai Mara and many other major tourist attractions within Kenya. We also have two Destination Marketing Company (DMC), Silverbird and Incentive Travel, who have also joined, they have come to showcase our magical Kenya brand.
You mentioned incentive; tell us about your visa policy as well as the incentives you will give to Nigerians if they decide to come to your country?
When you talk about visa, visa now is an ETA, which is very easy for you to get. Initially we used to charge you 50 dollars to come to Kenya, now it has been brought down to about 39 USD.
Once you apply online, within 72 hours, you are able to get an approval and you receive your stamp on arrival. So it is very easy now, it is not as complicated. I know a lot of Nigerians have told me that it is very hard to get a visa in Kenya, but trust me, it is very seamless. It is very seamless and a lot of people are not complaining now.
What other incentives are you giving?
Incentives are, one, Nigerians as an African market, we have special rates for you. I can’t say that they are specifically tailored for Nigerians, but when you are coming to our national parks, we have rates for Africans, because we want to open Africa.
Remember, this is our black dollar. We used to invest a lot in the European market, American market, but right now, this financial year, we are focusing on Africa and we have put a lot of strategies and campaigns to attract fellow Africans to visit Kenya. For instance, this year, in February, we had a West Africa Roadshow and we brought in about 12 companies from Kenya to come and support the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) members.
So we had a roadshow in Abuja and also in Lagos and we trained about 500 travel agents to really understand what we offer and also create a platform for them to work with our fellow tour operators.
What is the traffic like from Nigeria and other West African countries to Kenya?
Last year, we received 32,000 Nigerians who visited Kenya and this time, we are looking at about 50, 000. Most come for tourism, some come for MICE, some are coming for education, because we realize we have quite a number of students from Nigeria who are schooling in Kenya. Some also come for medical tourism.
Can you give us an estimate of how much tourism generates for your country?
Last year, we generated about 20 billion USD. Actually, tourism is our number two source market after agriculture.
So what is the projection for this year?
So the projection this time is to grow tourism receipts by 10%.
