• KICC Chief Executive Nana Gecaga said the international convention centre will be adopting environmental friendly products in meetings, conferences and events as well as in the day to day running of the organization.
• Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has urged Kenyans and organization’s under the tourism ministry to be environmentally friendly.
Kenya’s top conferencing facility-Kenyatta International Conventional Centre, KICC has embarked on a mission of supporting environmental conservation initiatives.
Speaking at the side-lines of the ECO Warrior Awards on Friday, KICC Chief Executive Nana Gecaga said the international convention centre will be adopting environmental friendly products in meetings, conferences and events as well as in the day to day running of the organization.
The Eco Warrior Award is a Kenyan Tourism award ceremony that recognizes and celebrates outstanding contributions to ecotourism practice in Kenya.
It is aimed at motivating winning ventures, operations and industry at large to embrace practices that are ecologically and ethically sustainable in order to compete with the best in the world.
“In the coming few months we will be launching some projects that we have been working on geared towards conserving the environment and making the centre green” Gecaga said.
While addressing the participants,Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala urged Kenyans and organization’s under the tourism ministry to be environmentally friendly.
The environmental programme comes even as KICC embarks on an aggressive marketing campaign to promote conference and business tourism in the country.
The parastatal tasked with selling Kenya’s conference tourism globally is targeting the US market, with other regions such as Europe, Middle East and Russia on its radar, as it continues bidding for major global and regional conferences.
According to Gecaga, KICC is targeting global conferences set for the next five to ten years, continental meets, regional conferences and the domestic market, to retain Kenya and KICC's position as a leading Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions(MICE) destination.
“We are already a destination but we cannot sit back and and wait for conferences to come. We have to work for it. '" she said.
KICC is also closely working with airlines, hotels and associations to explore ways of making Kenya a leading tourism and Mice destination.
It is riding on past events which include the successful hosting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD 14) in July 2016, Tokyo International Conference on African Development(TICAD-VI) and last year's Sustainable Blue Economy Conference which attracted over 18,000 delegates.
KICC was recognised as Africa’s leading meetings and conference destination at this year's World Travel Award (in June), where Kenya was named Africa’s leading business travel destination.
Tourism Research Institute(TRI) data shows of the 921,090 visitors to the country in between January to June, 18 per cent or about 165,796 were here on business purpose which include meetings and conferences.
It is estimated that every international delegate spends at least Sh376,000 per conference trip of about three to six days, reflecting the huge potential MICE holds for the economy.
KICC is facing stiff competition from Cairo Convention Centre in Egypt, Cape Town Convention Centre and Durban Convention Centre(South Africa) and the Kigali Convention Centre in Rwanda which has brought competition to Kenya's door step.