With economic downturn, coupled with stringent visa
conditions introduced by many countries in Europe, Asia and the United States,
many Nigerians are reviewing their travel destinations and are beginning to
exploit African countries.
According to Statista, in 2021 out of the many countries
Nigerians travelled to for business and for leisure, Ghana ranked number one
destination travelled by Nigerian residents, followed by the United States,
Ethiopia, Senegal, Togo. In fact, 38 per cent of Nigerians who travelled out of
the country went to Ghana, while 14 per cent travelled to the United States,
six per cent to Ethiopia, five per cent to Senegal and four per cent to Togo.
In that same 2021 about four million Nigerians travelled out of the country.
Kenya last week, carried out a road show with the aim to
have a slice of the number of Nigerians that embark on business, leisure and
tourism travels. It was learnt that Kenya is targeting to raise tourist
arrivals from West Africa by pitching for business and leisure travel.
Kenya’s Tourism Board (KTB) Acting CEO, John Chirchir, said
the West African market remained integral to its strategy to diversify tourist
source markets and broaden the country’s destination portfolio.
In particular, he noted that Nigeria and Ghana, have shown
improvements of six per cent and 48 per cents respectively in 2023 and rank
among Kenya’s potential markets in the African continent.
He made this known during a meeting held to mark the
beginning of a series of road shows in the Nigeria and Ghanian cities of Lagos,
Abuja and Accra. KTB and Kenya airways led over 15 travel and trade companies
for in-market activations held from February 5-9, 2024.
“With around 1.4 billion people, Africa stands as one of the
biggest source markets for trade, business, and tourism. We are starting off
with West Africa with roadshows in Accra, Lagos and Abuja which are interesting
emerging markets. During the activation, we expect the 17 Kenyan trade
companies to engage in business meeting and direct engagements with potential
travellers from the three cities. We cannot ignore the potential that the
African Market has for tourism” Chirchir stated.
The Sales Manager of Kenya Airways in Nigeria, Rotimi
Martins, explained that Kenya Tourism Board targets West African destination and prominently
Nigeria and Ghana havethe traction to give them the population they are looking
to enter Nairobi and the objective is to boost leisure and tourism for Kenya.
“And if Kenya tourism board is having an event of this
nature, Kenya Airways must surely collaborate with them to make it a success.
That is why we are here as a partner in business and as a sister company to
KTB. So that is the essence of today’s event. You can see there are pretty lot
of people you are seeing here are travel agents or we call them trade partners.
They are the people that will assist us boost destination Kenya. That is
talking of Nairobi, Mombasa, Diani and the host of other tourist points in
Kenya. So that is the essence of the event,” he said.
Martin disclosed that Kenya Airways would increase its
frequency to Lagos and start the Abuja flights.
“Frequency increment has been a thing we are looking at even
before the KTB event. Presently we are doing seven flights out of Lagos, which
is every day. But come April we are going to add one to it, to make it eight.
But come the summer of this year, we are going to do 10 flights out of Lagos to
Nairobi.
“So come April, based on this event that you are seeing, we
are doing a seven days flight out of Lagos. But we are going to increase it to
eight come April. Additional one flight, which means on day seven of every week
we will do morning and night. But come June, we are going to do 10 out of
Lagos. That is at the inception of the summer period. Then towards the end of
the year, a little bit after summer, we are going to start Abuja. So, we will
be flying out of Abuja and out of Lagos, and most likely, 15 to about 18
flights out of Nigeria. That is what we are going to do,” Martins further
disclosed.
The Marketing Manager of Kenya Tourism Board, Alex Tunoi,
said the reason why “we are here is part of our strategy for diversifying the
source markets, and we are focusing on West Africa as one of our key source
markets to grow numbers of tourism arrivals into Kenya.”
He said the Board had observed that “Africans are beginning
to travel, and they have the propensity for travel, and they are looking for
new and exciting destinations. And we are here as Kenya to offer this
opportunity to this market for them to come to Kenya and enjoy what Kenya has
to offer.”
Tunoi also said that the Kenya Tourism Board came with trade
partners, two operators, hoteliers, to develop packages for the Nigerian
market.
“That means that engaging with the Nigerian trade partners,
we are able to share with you all the attractions that Kenya has to offer. And
also share with you what the government has put in place to ease travel
restrictions to make Kenya more accessible to the market. And that is why we
are here. Putting our business people in touch with your business people. So
this is a business to business meeting so that we will be able to work with the
trade here, through this partnership and grow travel arrivals into Kenya,” he
said.
The representative of the hotel chain, Sarova Hotels and
Resorts, Steve Biko, said the hotels in Kenya were ready to receive Nigerians,
noting that Nigeria is a big market and they are poised to provide incentives
that will attract and sustain Nigerian visit to Kenya both for business and for
leisure.
“Nigeria is a big market from the efforts that we have seen
here. It is important and paramount that we are able to capture the Nigerian
market. I just learnt today that KQ
(Kenya Airways) will have daily flights to Lagos from Nairobi. There
must be a reason why. I had somebody asking about Ugandan Airlines. And the
Ugandan Airlines have told me this has been their most profitable route last
year. There are factors that set us apart from other hotels.
“Number one, we are indigenously Kenyan. We are the first
Kenyan hotel chain. And we have been there. We are celebrating our 50th years
this April. So, for us to have stayed in business for that long, it means we
are doing something right. And every day what separates us is we try and get
better, listen to the customer more, and provide experiences the customer will
enjoy. We are focused on guest experience. We are not focused on what we have,
but we are focused on giving the guests the best experience so that they can
keep talking about us,” Biko said.
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