Kenya seeks to push for increased Conference Tourism in Africa

Kenya is among 3,500 exhibitors attending this year’s international IMEX fair in Frankfurt, Germany with conference tourism industry players ready to market and position Kenya as a world renowned business events destination. 

At least seven Kenyan Business Tourism Stakeholders are attending IMEX led by Tourism Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Mr. Joe Okudo.

The Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) is coordinating Kenya’s participation at the show on behalf of the Ministry.

KICC Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Nana Gecaga said: “It is high time Kenya took up its rightful share of the meetings industry globally and this can only be achieved through aggressive marketing activities like the IMEX show. The Ministry of Tourism and KICC are joined by partners from private sector in the show.” She said.

“This year’s increase in partner members is a show that Kenya is taking up its position as the preferred Conference Tourism destination in Africa,” she added.

The private sector participants joining the Ministry and KICC include Heritage Hotels, Pride inn, Radisson Blu, Safari Park Hotel, Intercontinental Hotel and Zuri Events.

The 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 60 hosted buyer appointments and several group presentations that will be providing leads for potential conventions and incentives travel to Kenya.

Ms. Gecaga has put plans through the Ministry of Tourism to ensure conferencing at KICC is an all-round business. The Corporation will organise at least four events annually to attract international participation and will be held during the low conference season. This will also help increase Kenya’s conference tourism market share. The Centre is also undertaking upgrades to give the meeting rooms a modern facelift, as well us expansion of the convention facilities to increase its capacity.

The IMEX show attracts over 14,000 participants from across the globe, with over 67,000 scheduled appointments distributed to all the exhibitors.

IMEX gives countries opportunities to meet important conference buyers, global professional event organizers, and heads of association bodies with affiliate companies worldwide, among other global meetings industry players that are key to influencing where international conferences will be held.

KICC and other industry stakeholders participating at the show have seized the opportunity to meet influencers and key decision makers of conferences scheduled for Africa and woo them to bring the conferences to Kenya.

Kenya has recently raised its profile owing to the high-end international conferences it has hosted in the recent past, thereby making its bid to host more international conferences much easier.

Kenya’s conference tourism is still going a notch higher with a number of conference bids the country is placing to host.