Marketing initiative to boost domestic tourism kicks off

An initiative aimed at boosting the tourism sector's recovery from the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic has kicked off.

BT Concepts has kicked off the second phase of the Tembea Tujenge Kenya drive which targets to promote domestic tourism.

It aims at making domestic tourism affordable and sustainable in order to cut the country's reliance on foreign tourists.

The initiate officially launched on October 2 in Nairobi, will see local travel enthusiasts visit various tourist destination across the country and will run for the three years.

“We must rebuild our economy, the move will play a big role in the reconstruction of our country, jobs,”  Head of Presidential Delivery Unit Andrew Wakahiu said at the launch

He said the initiative, which targets half of the the country's tourists numbers will create job opportunities.

This comes at a time when about 1.7 million Kenyans have lost their source of income owing to the pandemic, according to data by the Kenya National Bureau Of Statistics.
The tourism industry was one of the hard-hit sectors from the pandemic after Kenya and global countries shut their borders to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease.

The initiative is supported by corporates such as Shell, Sarova Hotels, and Isuzu East Africa among others.

The travelers toured Amboseli National Park in Kajiado County over the weekend.

Tembea Tujenge Kenya Initiative targetst two different destinations over the weekends.

Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala while launching the National Tourism Crisis Report in June said that the industry had lost up to Sh80 billion since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Kenya received 14,049 tourists in August, the first month after the resumption of international and domestic flights compared to 159,804 international arrivals in a similar period last year.

The country earned Sh163.6 billion from the tourism sector in 2019.