By Lillian Kiarie
Kenya has been ranked second in conference Tourism in Africa, beating Morocco and Egypt according to an international hospitality organisation.
The two countries had previously dominated top spots.
The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) also rated Kenya at 58th position globally in the ‘Country& City rankings 2012’
Ruth Solitei, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism said the ranking was a testament that the country had evolved to be a top tourism destination.
“Conference tourism in the country continues to grow. This performance clearly depicts that there is need for more conventional and conference facilities of international standards in every county,” she said. “There is more accommodation and bed capacity, ideal transport and communication infrastructure to raise the attractiveness and capacity of the destination.” Naivasha, popular for domestic conferences, has been acclaimed as an emerging city destination in Kenya after it made a remarkable entry in the ICCA rankings for the first time.
Last year, the country hosted 29 international association conferences with 22 of those having been in the city’s capital-Nairobi. Nairobi emerged 100th best city destination, up four places from the position it held in 2011.
Tourism secretariats
It is also the second best city in Africa after Cape Town in South Africa. Solitei added Kenyatta International Conference Centre, the State corporation spearheading conference tourism in Kenya has already started engaging Governors in all the 47 counties to establish conference tourism secretariats in each of the counties.
This is in line with the country’s incentives, conferences and exhibitions strategy. Solitei noted that land had already been set aside in Bamburi, Mombasa to construct a green conventional centre.
The ministry is in the process of sourcing for investors to partner with the industry for the project.
Kisumu and Isiolo have also been identified as possible cities to put up a state of the earth convention centre.
She noted some other challenges to the tourism sector as poor infrastructure and lack of adequate capacity to host guests.
USA topped the list globally after hosting 833 conferences. In second position was Germany and Spain having hosted 649 and 550 conferences respectively.
Morocco came in third place for having hosted 23 meetings, Egypt was at fourth place having held 18 meetings and Tanzania came at fifth place with 16 meetings. Others in the list are Tunisia, Uganda, Ghana, Algeria and Ethiopia.
