The Blue Economy Conference will be held in Nairobi this week. The Kenyan diplomacy team has been working on this event for quite some time and in a focused way. Delegates from all over the world are travelling to Kenya to discuss the economic and ecologic potential of our rivers, lakes and seas.
This is just the latest of a number of international conferences, which have been held in Nairobi over the last years. Again, thanks to Kenyan diplomatic leadership, the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in 2015 and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 2016 were successful international events hosted here in Nairobi.
These bigger conferences are important if Nairobi is to be placed on the map for international conference tourism. Nevertheless, smaller conferences might be as important as the big ones.
When I was a young boy, Davos, my home village in the Swiss Alps, went from being an exclusive skiing resort to a world-known conference tourism location. I still remember the beginnings of the World Economic Forum. It was a gathering of a few business persons from Germany. Who would have thought that the WEF would one day be one of the most important gatherings of global leaders from politics, business, culture and research?
Today around 2,500 participants from 90 countries travel to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in January. Some 500 journalists cover the event. All in all, about 40,000 persons are in Davos during the WEF. The WEF Annual Meeting generates estimated revenues of around $79 million (Sh8.1 billion) throughout Switzerland. Some $50 million (Sh5.1 billion) of this directly benefits the village of Davos. The Annual Meeting is between 20 and 30 per cent of the annual turnover of Davos hotels.
This sounds like a fairy tale. However, it did not happen by accident or by magic. The small village of Davos, with 12,000 inhabitants, has constantly and strategically invested in its conference facilities and infrastructure. Several times, the Davos Congressional Center has been modernised and enlarged and it is able to host today up to 5,000 participants.
Importantly, private investments followed. Among others, a new Intercontinental Hotel opened its doors.
Security being a major issue, all parties - Davos, the Canton of Grisons (county), the Swiss Confederation and the WEF - are paying their fair share to keep all participants safe.
What does this mean for Nairobi and Kenya?
Kenyan diplomacy has shown that it is able to attract and organise big international conferences. An impressive number of new hotels have been constructed in Nairobi. I would like to mention just a few: The Hilton, Radisson Blu, Pullman, Best Western, and Mövenpick (a Swiss hotel chain). These are key assets when it comes to Nairobi’s future as a global congressional centre.
What in my opinion is now needed is a strategic investment by the Kenyan government and private investors in new, state-of-the-art conference infrastructure. The Kenyatta International Conference Center has a great location, but needs some more renovation.
Also bear in mind that Kigali is not sleeping and has recently invested in a brand new convention centre, and has very clean roads. A new international airport is also under construction in Rwanda.
Last, but not least, the United Nations offices in Nairobi are an important pillar when it comes to conference tourism. The UN is deliberating the renovation of its African headquarters in Nairobi.
This is the opportunity for Kenya to further strengthen its host state policy and continue working on creating an enabling environment for international organisations, NGOs, diplomatic missions and the private sector to meet and discuss global issues.
Kenya has plenty of opportunity when it comes to conference tourism.
Every other year, the World Economic Forum organises regional gatherings. The so-called “WEF in Africa” has been held in Nigeria, South Africa and Rwanda.
I do not see why Nairobi shouldn’t be the next destination for one of the next regional ‘WEF in Africa’ meetings.
That would bring my home village, Davos, to Nairobi!
Ambassador of Switzerland to Kenya