- Last year, about 2,500 tourism business people participated in the 3-day long fair.
- Kenya's 2023 tourism arrivals grew by more than 460,000 in the period to December.
Image: HANDOUT
Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) targets a 20 per cent growth in the number of delegates set to participate in the 13th edition of the Magical Kenya Travel Expo (MKTE).
The regional tourism fair, scheduled to run between October 2-4 at the Uhuru Gardens National Monument and Museum in Nairobi, is expected to bring together about 3,000 participants including tour operators, hoteliers, travel agents and travel trade visitors.
Last year, about 2,500 tourism business people participated in the 3-day long fair that is increasingly gaining popularity as a premier regional travel show with KTB seeking to position the expo for bigger global involvement.
The 13th edition of the expo is part of the destination repositioning activities geared towards the attainment of the targeted number of three million visitors to the country by the close of the year.
KTB chief executive officer June Chepkemei has expressed optimism that the expo will go a long way in repositioning Kenya for tourism business not only within the continent but globally.
For the past 12 years, MKTE has been the premier business-to-business tourism platform for the region bringing together all tourism players for insightful business transactions.
"This continues to be a trademark of the expo even as we work to maintain Pan African travel trade participation and cement Kenya's position as a leading tourism destination,” Chepkemei said.
The travel fair is coming at a time when Kenya is setting eyes on the African market that has shown resilience and steady growth in the highly competitive and fragile tourism industry.
According to last year’s tourism sector performance, Africa closed at about 0.8 million visitors to Kenya representing a 41 per cent market share of total international arrivals into the country.
The Europe market reported a 30 per cent market share with 0.6 million arrivals in Kenya while the Americas market posted a 17 per cent market share with about 0.3 million visitors to Kenya.
MKTE is highly structured for business, bringing in about 160 carefully selected and vetted buyers from Kenya’s key source markets in Europe, the US, Asia, and Africa.
The expo has also been instrumental in allowing over 60 per cent of local small and medium travel enterprises and startups to access international markets and build linkages.
Kenya's 2023 tourism arrivals grew by more than 460,000 in the period to December, marking the third consecutive growth since 2021 when the numbers started rising.
The annual tourism sector performance report shows arrivals rose from 1,483,752 in 2022 to 1,951,185 in 2023, a 31.5 percent increase.
This is however way less compared to the previous year (2021-2022) when the numbers grew by about 71 per cent.
August recorded the highest number of visitors at 11 per cent of the total arrivals, attributed to the wildebeest migration experience in Maasai Mara around late July to August.
The growth is attributed to the good value for money perception by tourists, implying their belief that the country offers quality experiences, services and attractions relative to the cost of their travel.