Kenya turns South for more tourists

By Kobia Mwirichia

NAIROBI, KENYA: Kenyan mission in South Africa has launched an aggressive marketing and awareness campaign to woo more tourists to Kenya, country’s High Commissioner to South Africa Patrick Wamoto has said.

Mr. Wamoto said with the recent travel advisories against visits to Kenya by key traditional tourism source markets, contacts have been increased in South Africa to market the country’s potential in the sector.

The envoy, also accredited to Lesotho and Swaziland, spoke to Presidential Strategic Communication Unit (PSCU) in his Pretoria office ahead of the inauguration of President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria on Saturday.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the chair East African Community, is among the invited Heads of State and Government expected to grace the occasion.

Said Mr. Wamoto, “We have increased interactions with our South African friends to ensure advisories issued by western countries do not affect tourists from the country so much,”

With the aggressive and heavy investment in the campaign, the envoy noted ‘South Africa is set to become our fastest growing source market in the continent’.

The campaign aimed at courting other tourist markets is part of Government’s strategy to diversify tourist source markets without abandoning the traditional markets.

He said South Africa is the leading source of tourist to Kenya after Uganda with 40,000 arrivals last year. “As part of growing intra-regional tourism on the continent, we are wooing more tourists from the country,” the envoy added.