- Over 14 Kenyan travel trade partners will take part in the three–day exhibition.
- They will be facilitated by the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) as the the country seeks to reposition itself in the Indian market.
Kenya is set to sign business deals in the Indian market during the upcoming three day Outbound Travel Mart (OTM) tourism fair in Mumbai, India.
The three day expo taking place from February second to fourth will bring together more than 1,300 exhibitors from over 60 countries, inclusive of Kenya.
Over 14 Kenyan travel trade partners will take part in the three–day exhibition being facilitated by the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB).
The country will be seeking to reposition itself in the Indian market whose growth has picked up to about 90 per cent by close of last year compared to 2021.
According to Kenya Tourism Board (KTB’s) acting CEO John Chirchir, taking part in the exhibition will give the country an opportunity to make a re-entry into the Indian market that was severely affected with travel restrictions because of Covid-19.
“India is one of the markets whose travel were negatively impacted with the Covid-19, we are now making a physical presence in the market after about 2 years of absence, and we hope to reap big from the fair,” Chirchir said.
He added that participating in the event will allow Kenya tap into the growing Indian tourism market and promote its offerings to Indian travelers.
In 2022, arrivals into Kenya from the Indian source market recorded a growth of about 93.2 per cent to 81,458 last year, up from 42,159 in 2021.
This represents a recovery of about 67 per cent compared to the pre-Covid performance of 120,893 in 2019.
Chirchir therefore, notes that the growth is a positive indication that tourism business in India is on the right track to recovery even as KTB rolls out key promotional and marketing campaigns in the market.
In line with efforts to boosting bilateral trade relations between the country and India, last year, KTB hosted a familiarisation trip in Nairobi for India’s leading travel companies.
Joint promotional campaigns with marketing companies such as FCM Travel Solutions India and Yatra to build traveler confidence were also launched.
Kenya Tourism Federation Chairman Fred Odek, said international exhibitions remain a key platform of wooing international travelers as they are key in contributing to the revenue receipt for the sector.
He said domestic tourism has sustained the tourism business through the Covid-19 pandemic period but added that international travelers have contributed a lion share in terms of revenues.
“I therefore recommend KTB for stepping up its marketing activities, and it is also important we sustain our in-bound market to keep up with the competing destinations that are beefing up their numbers to 2019," Odek said.
"We are optimistic that we are going to sign new contracts during the OTM event.”