Kenya Tourism Board on a 6month domestic tourism campaign

The Kenya Tourism Board [KTB] has embarked on a six-month domestic tourism campaign dubbed, “You Deserve a Holiday” to support the industry urging Kenyans to travel throughout country.

KTB acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) John Chirchir said the campaign aims to address the challenges that the tourism industry faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He confirmed the Tourism Promotion Fund supported the KTB initiative in the tourism recovery efforts by funding the domestic marketing promotion to a management program.

“The pandemic had reduced the uptake of hospitality services leading to closure of properties and laying off of staff in the hospitality sector,” he added.

Chirchir said the campaign is supported by trade partners through collaborative marketing where KTB and the trade partners are combining their resources and messaging.

He was speaking during a tourism forum comprising stakeholders from the coast region held at Tamarind Mombasa – Dhow and Restaurant in Nyali constituency, Mombasa county.

The KTB acting CEO added that there are also marketing initiatives to help enhance the tourism business for the destination.

Chirchir reminded the forum the industry campaign objective is to grow travel trade business by 15 percent in domestic tourism by February 2023.

He added this was also to increase domestic travel and diversity consumption of tourism experiences across the country.

“The concept of tourism stakeholder were identified through Request for Proposals (RFP) that was shared through the tourism umbrella body Kenya Tourism Federation,” he said.

The KTB boss said there are eight active private sector bodies representing the associations of Tour Operators, Hotelkeepers and Caterers, Travel Agents, Air Operators, Mombasa and Coast tourism.

Chirchir pointed out that associations such as Tour Operator Society of Kenya was also considered.

He added trade partners were selected based on the evaluation on provision of a Domestic Tourism Conversion campaign covering the six-month period of the campaign.

“This is based on average number of domestic tourists that they handled per month,” he disclosed