NAIROBI, Aug 30 (NNN-KBC) — Kenya’s Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano says her ministry is working towards increasing tourist arrivals to 5 million by 2027 from the current 2.1 million people.
Speaking when she met officials from Kenya Tourism Federation and Kenya Tourists Guides, Miano said partnerships with various players will also help the country record revenue increase from the current Ksh 352 billion to about Ksh 824 billion annually.
“My commitment is to build synergies with the private sector to develop a common approach in transforming the Tourism Sector to be the number one contributor of foreign exchange earnings job creation and GDP Growth,” said Miano.
“As a Ministry we applaud the Private sector contribution and partnerships in hosting and participating in local and international events; marketing campaigns; policy advocacy; developing innovative tourism products and Market Intelligence Sharing.”
The ministry is currently working to develop the National Tourism Strategy to further help boost domestic tourism.
“We will work together to develop incentives on affordable travel and accommodation to support the growth of our domestic Tourism. As a ministry we are developing an annual calendar of tourism events and we will be enhancing our synergies to partner and ensure we have all year-round events promoting domestic tourism. We will soon be inviting you to launch the tembea Kenya campaign,” she added.
Part of the strategy the CS said the government will be using the upcoming UN World Tourism Day set for 27TH next month to promote domestic tourism.
“We will be celebrating the UN World Tourism Day on 27th September 2024 which we want to optimize as a key strategy towards promoting domestic and international tourism. We have already engaged the various Counties to bid for the hosting of the event. Additionally, we will champion the celebration of the day in all the counties,” she said
Other areas which Miano said she will be seeking collaboration with the private sector is on digitizing the tourism sector as well as financing mechanisms to support sector growth.
“We are committed towards developing virtual tours, and developing the Tourist App that will provide recommendations, information of attractions and digitized guided tours.” — NNN-KBC
