By M&M
Kenya is banking on an online exhibition to woo international travelers from the Asia Pacific region with the resumption of international travels.
Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) has registered over 10 travel trade members including tour operators and hoteliers for a one-day online exhibition dubbed ReCONNECT jointly organized by Outbound Travel Mart (OTM) Tourism Travel Fair (TTF) and Business+Leisure Travel Mice (BLTM).
The online expo which will take place on 18th September 2020 is the leading travel show within the Asia-Pacific region and is highly ranked with over 50 countries 1000 exhibitors and 15000 trade visitors expected to be in attendance.
The event is touted by tourism players to be the gateway to India’s travel markets.
India is among Kenya’s top five tourists source markets from the Asian continent and is among the fastest growing outbound tourism travel markets.
UNWTO had earlier forecasted that India would account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020.
KTB CEO Dr. Betty Radier said that the online exposition will offer Kenya a great opportunity to re-assure travelers that Kenya was ready for tourism business in compliance with covid-19 pandemic on safety and health protocols.
With the open skies and compliance to health and safety protocols, the CEO noted, Kenya has already begun to receive international visitors, noting that KTB will continue to re-assure the markets of the country’s readiness for tourism business.
“India is a priority source market for Kenya with 2019 tourist arrivals from India in 2019 closed at 122,600. We believe that being part of this expo is critical for us to get a bigger share of this market. I thank the organisers for making sure that this event happens virtually after the challenges of Covid-19. The Virtual space is growing as a meeting point today, leveraging on this space will be critical moving forward,” said Dr Radier.
The expo will accord participants the opportunity to gain market insights, identify market opportunities while also strengthening and building trade relations with India’s major outbound operators for continued tourism growth in the country.
India has 75 Million passport holders which presents a great opportunity for Kenya to tap into, especially in peak travel seasons of October to December when 25 percent of outbound travel happens and from April to June that has 50 percent of outbound travel.
