HOT

Situation Stable，Tourism Restarted
From March 24th to March 27th this month, Kenya Travel Board (KTB) will hold a circuit press conference in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. During this circuit, KTB will introduce the present situation of Kenya to the media and partners of the travel industry from the three host cities in order to restart the tourism industry in Kenya. On that occasion, the ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to China and senior officials of KTB will all attend.
At the end of last year, a country-wide riot caused by the general election made the travel industry of Kenya suffered severe loss. However, under the mediation from the international society, solution has been made towards a political compromise between the two parties which bring back gradually a stable situation in the society and recovery to the travel industry. The Kenyan government has also invested a great deal of manpower as well as capital to recover their domestic tourist industry and open the foreign market as quick as possible. “The recovery will be divided into two stages.” The Managing Director of KTB, DR.ONGONG’A ACHIENG mentioned, “Firstly, we will rebuild the image of Kenya and the confidence of the customers through a series of PR measures. And this plan has got supports from some airways, hotel operators, travel agencies, suppliers and media.” And according to DR.ONGONG’A ACHIENG, China will be one of their major target markets in the World.
Before this circuit, KTB has attended the China Xi’an (International) Travel Fair 2008. And after it, KTB will be present in the World Travel Fair (WTF) in Shanghai on March 28th, the Guangzhou International Travel Fair (GITF) in Guangzhou on April 4th, the Forth Central China Travel Expo (CCTE) in Wuhan on April 25th, the Beijing International Travel Fair 2008 in Beijing on June 19th and China International Travel Mart 2008 (CITM) in Shanghai on November.
Moreover, Kenyan Government will start a new promotion strategy to promote their tourist industry in some potential market. And this year’s China circuit is the most powerful proof of how important Chinese market is to the recovery of Kenya travel industry. And it is also a great opportunity for Chinese people to know more about Kenya.
“From analyzing the inbound tourists market, we find a cheering data.” DR.ONGONG’A ACHIENG said, “From the statistics of the number of tourists travel to Kenya last year, we can see that the biggest amplification is from China. The number of Chinese tourists has increased to 18,766 last year, rose 26.2% compared with the 14,788 in 2006.”
As DR.ONGONG’A ACHIENG said, KTB has intensified their promotion in Chinese market via joining force with the local media and travel industry in China. “After this press conference circuit, we will invite many Chinese journalists to Kenya to get the firsthand information and bring them back to China to enlarge the influence and upgrade the image of Kenya.” Said DR. ONGONG’ A ACHIENG.
In China, many Chinese travel trade partners find that Kenya, an attractive African country, has been in the list of the most popular tourist country to Chinese people for vacation, travel and exploration, which may be the next top destinations tourists after Europe and Australia for high end tourists.
The visit of officials of KTB in China symbolises the importance of the Chinese travel market. It is hoped that with the development of Chinese economy and travel industry, more and more Chinese people will choose Kenya as their first choice for travel. DR.ONGONG’A ACHIENG emphasizes constantly, “We sincerely appeal for more supports from Chinese government, tourist industry and different media than ever before to work together for the development of the travel industry of two countries.”
Besides, the information released from KTB since the beginning of the political dispute end last year, indicated that there was no one single case about foreigners gotten injured or died in the upheaval. On the contrary, hundreds and thousands of foreign tourists in Kenya were protected by the local government and KTB, and all of them finished their tour and went back their motherland safely.
Actually, to Chinese people, such kind of incident is not rare, we have seen so much before. For example, the coup de tat in Thailand in 2006. “Most foreign tourists were not afraid of the happenings as we have thought. Contrarily, many of them took photos in front of the tanks used in the coup.” The marketing manger of KTB Far East, Mr. Henry Yim, who experienced the incident in Thailand said, “ this kind of political disturbance is of domestic and temporarily, it is different from the terrorist attacks, and will do no harms to foreign tourists. Besides, because that during the riot, the airports, hotels or many other travel agencies are operated as normal, the disruption to tourist travel is little if any and the recovery is fast.”
China has been enjoying good relations with African countries. Kenya and China established diplomatic ties in 1963. Since then, the leaders of both countries have exchange visits frequently, and collaborated successfully in many areas. The Kenyan people are always kind to Chinese, and no one case of Chinese people was attacked for whatever reason in this country until to date.