KENYA SETS SIGHTS ON MORE CHINESE TOURISTS

Kenya Tourism Board CEO, Betty Radier.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) last week launched a video marketing campaign targeting the Chinese travel market during a media forum in Beijing.
The custom-made Chinese-language video targets to increase awareness on Kenya’s tourism sites.

The video will feature prominently on famous Chinese sites like WeChat, Weibo and Youku (Youtube) for about one month.

“A majority of Chinese travellers want to visit Kenya only for the wildebeest migration from July to September. Through the newly launched destination video, we are positioning Kenya as an all year-round destination among Chinese consumers and trade,” said KTB Chief Executive Officer, Dr Betty Radier.

China is currently Kenya’s fifth biggest tourism source market internationally and the second biggest source market in Asia. It contributed 5.5 per cent of total international tourist arrivals to Kenya in 2017. The number of Chinese tourists visiting the country in 2017 also grew by 11.8 per cent to 53,485.

“The Chinese market represents a huge opportunity for Kenya’s tourism industry. This is why we are deepening our engagement with Chinese trade and media to increase interest and desire for travel to Kenya among Chinese consumers,” said Ms Radier.

China is also one of Kenya’s best performing tourism source markets, having shown a collective 42.9 per cent growth since 2011.

In its 2017 Tourism Highlights Report, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) ranked China as the world’s top spender on tourism with a total expenditure of $261 billion Sh26.4 trillion).

The UNWTO has projected that the number of Chinese travelling overseas will reach 200 million by 2030.

Business Daily