Business Daily (Nairobi)
Wangui Maina
1 July 2008
The Government will invest millions of shillings in a media campaign in Europe using international media houses to reposition Kenya as a tourist destination.
The tourism ministry will soon sign a $2 million (Sh128 million) contract with global broadcaster, CNN, to run a media campaign in August and September. The campaign will also be rolled out in other international media houses such as BBC and Al Jazeera.
The adverts, which will highlight a journey through what the destination has to offer, are part of the industry's investment at repositioning the destination.
Speaking recently at the National Museum the Tourism minister, Mr Najib Balala, said the ministry was working at promoting Kenya as a first class destination. "We need to erase the negative image the country has received in the recent past and ensure the destination is no longer perceived as a cheap place," he added.
This is the first major campaign in the international media carried out by the country. A former minister of trade, Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, ran a similar campaign on DSTV in a bid to lure investors into the country.
Adverts will also run in subway stations and on billboards in major European source markets where the sector has been carrying out aggressive publicity campaigns in a bid to entice charter planes to resume flights to Nairobi and Mombasa.
This promotional campaign will cost the sector $5 million (Sh320 million) with further investments expected for other major markets like the US.
In the budget, Finance minister Mr Amos Kimunya gave the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) Sh800 million to market the destination in a bid to rebuild one of the key sectors in the economy. In addition, the European Union earlier released €7 million (Sh700 million) for marketing.
Mr Balala also noted that the country would only achieve the repositioning vision through the opening up of new areas like Tana River, Lake Turkana, Western Kenya and the North Rift. A proposal that has been captured in Vision 2030 which talks of opening up three resort cities in the country as well as diversifying the product offering.
The sector is also looking at moving towards potential markets like Russia, the Middle East and Japan. These markets have an emerging upper class who are interested in travelling.
Since the cancellations earlier in the year the sector has been struggling to stay afloat but with the major investments that have been put in place the sector is looking at a resurgence soon. Bookings for the end of the year winter season have been on the increase with hotels expressing some optimism.
As he unveiled the new vision for the sector the minister reassured players that he was in talks with Mr Kimunya to reverse the introduction of taxes on tourist transportation in the recently read budget.
"This would be the wrong time to add such a tax as tour operators have already sent out their rates until June 2009, it would also have an negative impact on operators especially now when we are trying to recover," he said.
He also urged Kenya Wildlife Service to avoid increasing prices to the various parks until July 2009 when tour operators will be sending out the new rates to the market.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Business Daily. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
