On Tuesday, Kenya marked the World Tourism Day with pride and a new sense of optimism following a decision by the World Travel Awards (WTA) — the most sought after awards in the global travel and tourism industry — to recognise our hospitality sector amongst the best in the world.
WTA, which has been heralded as the ‘travel industry’s equivalent to the Oscars’ by The Wall Street Journal has named Sarova Stanley hotel amongst the best in the world and awarded it the title of Kenya’s Leading Hotel.
The hotel was also tagged Kenya’s Luxury Business Hotel during the World Luxury Hotel Awards in Zagreb, Croatia about a fortnight ago.
It is a pleasant coincidence it happened as the world was readying itself to celebrate tourism day.
The purpose of this day is to raise awareness on the role of tourism within the international community and to demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide.
Tourism minister Najib Balala says tourism has indeed come of age and tourists nowadays want a holistic experience of the places they visit including the ways of life, discovering new food, customs and visiting cultural sites.
In an industry where negative reviews or endorsements have huge influence on whether a country gets visitors or not, the placement of Sarova Stanley amongst the best establishments on the global pedestal is not only an endorsement of our hospitality industry, it also offers Kenya a new product to sell.
If tourism, which is a valuable industry, is to survive the severe competition brought about by the emergence of Egypt and South Africa as the continent’s most preferred tourists’ destinations, we believe Kenya will have to offer fresher products outside what it has traditionally marketed in order to attract tourists from emerging markets like China.
We believe the placement of Sarova Stanley on the world tourists’ map offers Kenya the opportunity to start selling a fresher product to the world market — our hospitality industry.
The industry is well developed, but it can take it a step further, with better service offerings, food and entertainment. The recognition of our hospitality industry offers new advantages to those charged with marketing our country as a tourist destination, but clearly, a lot more has to been done to break into the tourism market in emerging markets and establish Kenya as a desirable destination.
More diversity
Products and marketing programmes have to be specifically designed and mounted to promote domestic tourism and entice foreigners to our country.
Other products which Kenya has given insufficient attention are sports and business tourism.
Sports tourism does not mean employing world-renowned athletes in advertisements for the country’s tourism. Rather it is the systematic promotion of sports events in Kenya.
The promotion of sports and business tourism in Kenya needs a well organised campaign, sustained over some years, including advertisements of our facilities on international television channels, magazines, newspapers, and even international flights.
In addition, sports tourism needs to expand its range of activities beyond athletics and start tapping into other activities like volleyball, football and annual cultural activities like the annual Lamu boat race, which has potential to attract international attention.
Tourism could be one of the biggest revenue earners for the country if we nurture what we have and put in place effective marketing strategies to market our country’s potential as a tourist destination.
The ministry concerned has always cited insufficient allocation of funds for this activity, but we believe the Government is aware and would like to urge that this matter be sorted out as fast as is practicable.
A vibrant tourism industry could create jobs with decent pay that would help provide employment to thousands of Kenyans who graduate from hospitality colleges around the country every year.
But this can only happen if there is a healthy working relationship between the State and private players in the tourism industry. If the Government wants the Tourism ministry to live up to its promise of making tourism a key engine of economic growth, it cannot afford to ignore these concerns.
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