Are we not supposed under an agreement to have joint stands at tourism trade fairs, which includes Kenya?
Why are they suddenly breaking ranks with us?
Whatever they are trying to say, why not tell the truth that they failed to allocate enough money for tourism marketing this year?
Well let me tell them, if they are AWOL those of us who are at those trade shows will simply sell our own countries and Kenya’s loss will be our gain.
Entebbe and Kigali are now well connected to Europe, the Gulf and across Africa and it is no longer essential to fly through Nairobi to get here said a leading Ugandan tourism agent.
Another from Rwanda said This is an uninformed decision taken for lack of money surely and now trying to explain it away.
I speak of experience because we were told last year that permit fees for gorilla tracking had to be doubled for conservation reasons and we now know that this was equally poorly informed.
At least we still go to tourism trade shows and with the Kenyan competition absent we stand a better chance to sell those expensive permits.
Mohammed Hersi Chairman of the Kenya Tourism Federation made the following statement:
I do NOT recall any research or study that was done or shared with us for a buy in that indeed participating in these fairs is waste of time and money.
WTM London is mainly for UK agents and some European. It is even more crucial now that BREXIT is happening and UK is taking back Its rightful No 1 position as a tourist source for Kenya . ITB is for entire EU and other buyers
Indaba is mainly for Safari Buyers especially North America. Australia etc. ATM Dubai is for the GCC and Asia.
They talk of ROI. Firstly we have never been told how much we spend on these fairs besides we all fly ourselves and also pay for our accommodation we then share the cost of the stand.
The justification put forward is that we are now adopting a direct consumer approach does not hold any water since it is a known fact that as a safari destination you’ll always need a DMC who in turn works with wholesalers globally.
The logistics of attracting a do it yourself client for a safari itinerary is next to impossible more so when we are trying to attract families.
You tell me which family from Sydney or Seattle or Tokyo would attempt to do that?
Even with a DMC they are never sure about Africa. Kenya as a destination is not some Disney that we can wake up and claim to market direct to the consumer.
You bypass the wholesalers and you avoid the fairs then they’ll happily read your obituary to any potential visitor while our competitors will happily pick the pieces.
They have already done it at ATM Dubai and Indaba Durban and soon at WTM London.
We have no issue with digital campaign but that should complement other channels like fairs.
Even at our worst image crisis as nation like the PEV of 2007/8 while the peace accord was signed on 28th Feb 2008 the following week we were at ITB telling the world we are open for business.
Imagine for once if we missed out?
To KTB if fairs are a failure how comes the rest of the world are all attending?
What is that very special insight that KTB has that has been missed out by the rest of the world who are still wasting their time and money at these fairs so to speak?
If KTB is going digital how come the Tech zones at these fairs are getting bigger and better every year yet all they do is to trade online.
Why would Booking.com, Expedias and The likes "waste" their money at fairs yet they can comfortably do it in a digital way besides that is precisely what they are Online Travel Agents OTA’s.
Where would you meet 30 buyers from 4 continents and 20+ source countries in 3 days?
If you were to physically visit all these source countries to meet all these players you will blow your budget for the next three years.
Coca Cola President was asked by a young pilot why they spend so much money on advertising yet Coca Cola is already popular.
The President calmly responded to the young pilot “Why are we running the engine and yet we are already airborne.”
I am afraid pulling out of these fairs will negatively affect our destination while the competition is rubbing their hands with glee.
Well time will tell and as industry players we are exploring how to take ourselves to WTM London.
If that is to happen then KTB’s very existence will be under focus since marketing and promoting the destination is their first mandate which by default they would have abdicated.
I rest my case
Mohammed Hersi
Chairman
Kenya Tourism Federation
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