- ITB is an internationally renowned consumer exhibition for the fields of leisure tourism and holiday travel.
- The fair will return as an in-person event for the first time since 2019
Image: WILFRED NYANGARESI
Kenya is looking to ramp up its tourism marketing drive across different markets by making a comeback to various physical tourism exhibitions.
Next week, Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage Cabinet Secretary Peninah Malonza will be leading 45 tourism travel trade partners drawn from hotels, tour operators and government agencies for B2B meetings at a three-day long exhibition in Germany.
The International Tourism Bourse (ITB) which is set to be held at the Messe Berlin exhibition grounds in Germany from March 7 to 9 will be the first face–to–face ITB exhibition to be held after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tourism CS says that the ITB exhibition serves as a global tourism gateway and an opportunity for Kenya to capitalize and re-position her tourism products among global travellers.
ITB is an internationally renowned consumer exhibition for the fields of leisure tourism and holiday travel.
The fair will return as an in-person event for the first time since 2019 and is expected to draw over 160,000 visitors and will showcase more than 10,000 exhibitors from 180 countries.
The tourism exhibition is coming a barely a month after Kenya participated in a physical tourism business meeting at India’s Outbound Travel Mart (OTM) in Mumbai
According to Tourism CS, besides the digital marketing that has proved cost-effective, physical presence through in-market activities also remains key in enhancing destination top of mind presence among visitors and potential travellers.
She said the Europe market, besides the US contribute to a larger market share in arrivals.
Top five markets in the year 2022 as per the recently released tourism performance report include the United States with 209,360 visitors, Uganda (151,121), UK (131,526), Tanzania (123,836), India (83,106) and Germany with 53,498 visitors.
“German visitors are among the most travel-literate citizens in the "ITB is the most significant travel trade show in the world, and our participation is part of the renewed efforts to expand Kenya's footprint in key markets,'' Malonza said.
According to the 2022 performance report recently released,international tourist arrivals were 1,483,752, which represents a 70.45 per cent increase as compared to 2021 arrivals of 870,465.
This is above the global recovery rate, which is at 63 per cent.
Kenya Tourism Board acting CEO, John Chirchir says the ITB exhibition will position Kenya as the real deal, a destination of extraordinary possibilities.
“This reflects the country's diverse tourism experiences across the entire spectrum of travel. Germany is an important market in our long-haul programmes therefore, the ITB trade fair comes at an opportune time when we are scaling our entry to international markets strategy,'' he said.
Chirchir added that KTB will have an opportunity to engage with potential clients as it showcase the tourism opportunities we have for German and European visitors,'' he said.
Germany is one of the world's leading outbound tourism markets with tourists from the European nation spending over $51 billion on outbound trips in 2021 - more than any other country globally except for China and the United States.