In six months’ time, Kenya plans to launch an unprecedented week of tourism promotion, known as the #KenyaTourismFestival (KTF) 2018.
This is in line with the objective of enhancing visitor experience, as well as increasing their stay in the country. According to recent stats, the current traveler is keen on more experiences and options for choice, therefore, the festival seeks to meet some of those aspirations for the traveler.
The official celebration of World Tourism Day 2018 will be held on 27th September, 2018 in Budapest, Hungary, under the theme: Tourism and the digital transformation.
This morning, Tourism and Wildlife CS Najib Balala officiated the launch of the Kenya Tourism Festival scheduled for 27th September to 5th October 2018 pic.twitter.com/hcF0VXhNm1
— Dr. Betty Radier (@aabradier) March 27, 2018
Subsequently, there are five key activities spread from 27th September to 5th October 2018, presenting a one-long week of tourism festivities in the country.
On the World Tourism Day, 27th September, 2018, the national celebrations will be held in Nairobi County and several activities have been lined up, e.g. Tourism seminars for networking and sharing the latest trends in the tourism sector, among others. Later that evening, they will hold the Chef’s Delight™ Awards, to celebrate the country’s best chef and restaurant teams as graded by their regular customers.
From the 27th to 29th September, 2018, the Ministry of Tourism shall open up to the public the Beads or Ushanga Festival, whose overall objective is to strengthen the business and production skills of pastoralist women and youth from 7 target counties, improve their competitiveness in local, regional and International markets for sustainable livelihoods. It will showcase different beading works from different communities in those counties.
During the first week of October (2nd – 4th October 2018), they have organized the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF), planned by Bench Events, which is a showcase of high-growth destinations across Africa, geared to enable the continent grow its market share of global tourism through increased investments in tourism and hospitality in general.
The forum is a one-of-a-kind annual event that brings together investors, developers, owners and operators within Africa tourism subsector, as well as financiers and intermediaries such as architects, transaction advisors and senior policy makers in government from the global tourism sector.
It is expected to attract over 500 delegates and 30 exhibitors. This will bring along enormous direct and indirect economic benefits with linkages in all the sectors of the economy.
From 3rd – 5th of October 2018, the infamous Magical Kenya Travel Expo (MKTE) 2018, a regional tourism trade fair that brings on board hosted buyers from across the globe, including travel agents, tour operators, hoteliers and trade media from Kenya’s key tourism source markets such as Europe, Africa, Asia and Americas, among others will be held at the K.I.C.C
The event provides an opportunity to our local exhibitors to benefit from the cost-effective promotional platform that will generate new business by interacting with international trade. It allows enhanced networking between the business entities here and buyers from across many countries thus cutting cost for travel from own country to another.
This 8th edition of MKTE looks at bringing higher number of delegates from Kenya’s key strategic markets.
His Excellency Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta will officially launch KTF on the morning of Wednesday 3rd October, 2018 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC). In addition, H.E. Zurab Pololikashvili, UNWTO Seceretary-General will also grace the occasion. After this joint official launch of KTF, the more investment-focussed discussions of AHIF will move to the Radisson Blu Hotel at Upper Hill, Nairobi; while MKTE and Ushanga will continue at KICC.
