Kenya’s tourism sector needs new strategies to stay alive, warn stakeholders

Tourism CS Najib Balala

Kenya is now poised to lay more emphasis on tapping into both the domestic and regional tourism markets as it seeks to find its footing in the tourism industry during post-Covid-19.

Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary, Mr Najib Balala hosted a webinar stakeholder forum to lay the groundwork for the sector's recovery.

Balala singled out domestic and regional tourism as the key to the sector’s immediate recovery.

“The international market will take a while to recover and we should, therefore, bank on the domestic and regional travellers. However, affordability and accessibility will play a vital role in this”, Balala said.

Mr Damian Cook, Founder & CEO E-Tourism Frontiers who said Kenya needs to take stock of her products, supported Balala’s sentiments.

The webinar, under the banner ‘Leap Forward’, brought together over 500 stakeholders to listen and interact with six local and international tourism experts who made compelling presentations on the way forward for Kenyan tourism
Other tourism experts who took part in the webinar meeting included Chad Shiver , Destination Marketing Head for Africa, Trip Advisor,Alexandra Blanchard, Destination Sales Manager of EMEA, Trip Advisor, Ninan Chacko, Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Company and Hugo Espirito Santos ,Partner, McKinsey & Company.

Others were Karim Wissanji ,Founder & CEO, Elewana Group ,Maggie Ireri , CEO, TIFA Research Limited, Joanne Mwangi-Yelbert,CEO, PMS Group.

Data presented by TripAdvisor’s Destination Marketing Head for Africa indicated that in terms of recovery, Africa leads in the number of respondents (97 per cent) ready to take short domestic trips within six (6) months of the end of COVID-19.

The data also indicated that most travellers were seeking road trips and beach experiences, because of concerns about boarding planes and the need to unwind, respectively, post-COVID-19.

This data further supported CS Balala’s call for a focus on domestic and regional tourism.

Ninan Chacko of McKinsey, called for re-imagination and reform of Kenya’s tourism to have a more diversified tourism product that offers options and more value to travellers.

He gave the example of Tourism Australia and said that in tandem with the focus on domestic and regional tourism, Kenya could position itself as the hub for East African tourism given its national carrier’s network and resilience and its developed tourism infrastructure.

Hugo Espirito-Santos of McKinsey further noted that one of the ways to re-imagine and reform the tourism product would be by focusing on experiential tourism – giving tourists a better experience by reducing density in tourism sites such as the Maasai Mara and laying out strategies that take into consideration geography, consumer segments and culture and food experiences.

Damian Cook of E-Tourism Frontiers gave an elaborate strategy centred on react, rethink, and recovery to get the sector back on its feet and called for all players to develop a new paradigm for their businesses noting that the post-Covid-19 world will bring changes on the scale of 9-11 in 2001.

This he said would include bilateral tourism agreements and Covid-19-free certifications for countries.
Maggie Ireri, of TIFA Research Limited, took participants through the results of an online poll, which gave them an indication of the tourism stakeholders’ pain-points.

Pain-points which had earlier been brought to the attention of Balala by the sector and he has already presented them to the National Treasury for consideration.
Balala laid out the six-point agenda his Ministry is pursuing the sector, that employs over 1.6 million Kenyans and represents 20 per cent of the country’s GDP.

Among the agenda are the creation of a tourism recovery revolving fund, the deferring of tax and reduction of input costs and fees, and incentives for tourism sector investors, enhanced domestic tourism marketing budget, better support and coordination with the aviation sector and primacy and investment in conservation and wildlife as the backbone.

“We must leap. We must transform and adopt a new mindset or else perish”, the CS said.