A delegation of Kenyan business tourism stakeholders will embark on a three-day campaign to market and position the East African nation as a favourable business events and conferencing destination at a the IBTM show in Barcelona.
Kenya is among the 15,000 conference tourism industry players that will participate in this year’s IBTM Barcelona show, an annual leading global event for meetings and events industry.
The Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), the state parastatal mandated to market and position Kenya for conference tourism both locally and internationally, is coordinating Kenya’s participation at the show from 19th -21 November on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism.
KICC will be joined by other partners from private sector.
They include InterContinental Kenya, Pride Inn, Twiga Tours, Raddison Blu Kenya, Safari Park Hotel, Enashipai Hotels, and Maniago Tours.
The KICC Chief Executive Officer Ms. Nana Gecaga said this is the first time the show has attracted seven private sector participants from Kenya.
“This shows the country is taking up its position as a preferred Conference Tourism destination in Africa. KICC continues to work closely with private sector to position Kenya as the preferred business and conference tourism destination,’’ she said in a statement issued in Nairobi on Tuesday.
She pointed out that KICC has made deliberate efforts to include partners in aggressive marketing of the destination by taking up a bigger elaborately branded Exhibition stands.
The Centre has also undertaken a number of other marketing initiatives that will position the Country for conference tourism.
The IBTM show is expected to reap business leads that will be followed up as potential conferences and events to be hosted in Kenya.
Kenya has a total of 180 hosted buyer appointments and several group presentations that will be providing leads for potential conventions and incentives travel to Kenya.
Most conferences that the country hosts are through bidding and aggressive follow up from the government and private sector.
JK/as/APA