Kenya bets on US tourism expo to grow visitor numbers

Tourists come out of Oceania Cruise ship. ASTA Destination Expo to offer Kenya a chance to sell tourism to the US.

Kenya is counting on hosting the world’s largest consortium of tourists’ agents in February to push up US visitor numbers by more than a third.

According to American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) Kenyan Chapter President Samson Some, the ASTA Destination Expo 2017 that will get underway in Nairobi next month offers Kenya a crucial chance to sell Kenyan tourism to the US.

“Agents who do day-to-day selling of this destination will get information at first hand. This is crucial so that when they get back to their country, they will build the profile and sell it to potential visitors,” said Mr Some.

The expo will make Kenya the second country in Africa to host event of the largest travel association in the world, currently with a membership of 8,300. Kenya had bid for the chance four times before without success.

The only time it has been in Sub-Saharan Africa was in 2009 when South Africa hosted it in Sun City. Morocco hosted it in 2015 but according to World Trade Organisation, it is classified as middle-eastern destination with the likes of Tunisia, and Egypt.

In an interview with The Standard, Mr Some said that bringing the largest travel association in the world to Kenya for a week long expo offers the country a chance to match the growth trajectory of South Africa.

“South Africa was able to get 39 per cent increase in three years after the ASTA show and it has sustained the growth. That is what we are benchmarking on. No other conference has ever delivered this,” he said.

ASTA is the largest association of travel in the world with 8,300 corporate members in America and 140 chapters spread in the world. Hosting the expo is therefore expected to form firm foundation for the growth of US market in the foreseeable future.

During the expo that will get underway on February 23 and run up to 28th, there will be education and training of agents, followed by actual tour to various destinations.

This is geared at making them more familiar with Kenya’s tourist destinations especially that US alone has 50 of the ASTA chapters.

Traditionally, UK has been the leading country in terms of visitor numbers but Some says that he hopes to see US overtake it after the conference on sustained recovery that began in March 2016.

“We have noticed a lot of positives in the recovery. The American market has been able to recover more the UK market, which has been our traditional number one market,” said Mr Some.

He added that concerted efforts by Kenya Tourism Board and Ministry of Tourism would ensure Kenya breaks out of relying on just traditional markets like UK, Germany and other European clusters.