Kenya told to diversify its tourism products

Kenya’s heavy dependence on traditional beach tourism must be stopped if the country has to increase its global market share, Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) Managing Director Fred Simiyu has said.

Simiyu says Kenya must diversify and join some parts of the world that are increasingly becoming leaders in international Trade fairs and exhibitions and in the process generate billions of shillings in their respective countries.

For instance, he says, Singapore hosted 3.5 million business visitors, an increase of 3 per cent over 2012 and earned US$5.5 billion in revenue (not counting sightseeing, entertainment and gaming expenditure).

Simiyu says it is for this reason that the Ministry of Tourism and Trade, KICC has organised upcoming Meetings, Incentive travel, Conferences and Exhibition (MICE) meeting to be held from January 23, 2015 at the KICC.

“Kenya needs to aim at becoming the MICE tourism destination of choice in our region, the Singapore of East and eastern Africa,” says Simiyu. The East Africa region has not exploited this opportunity to have a major world MICE expo and yet Kenya is strategically located within Africa and between Middle East, Asia and Europe and is well served by international airlines.

The MICE destinations, which include South Africa, are reaping heavily from this niche market. The Kenya MICE Expo is expected to inject billions into Kenya’s economy through the multiplier effect on the monies that will accrue to the national GDP. The event will yield even more money from next year when it begins to attract international participants.

He says Kenya is an exotic tourist destination with great weather all year round and expansive choice of accommodation, besides its position as an economic and transit hub for Eastern and Central Africa. “We need to buy into this expo and make it an annual international event in order to realise more revenue,” he adds.

The Kenya MICE EXPO 2015 will serve as a medium to promote destination Kenya for business tourism by opening up avenues of foreign investment in different sectors of business within the region through MICE tourism.

Annual event

“The event will be a platform that brings together people from all over the region and across the globe from the year 2015 onwards as it will be an annual event that will among other things promote the sharing of ideas and business solutions,” said Simiyu.

The Kenya MICE Expo will  be an annual event from the year 2016 and will attract international exhibitors with a view to benchmarking with leading world exhibitions like Meetings Africa of South Africa, IMEX of Germany and Confex of London. MICE activities annually attract more than 5,500 international visitors worldwide.

Simiyu says Kenya is prepared to take MICE business tourism to the next level. He noted that while Kenya has the MICE tourism essentials largely in place, the country now needs to learn how to sell to this significant niche market.