Kenya to extend tourism marketing reach in China

NAIROBI - Kenya will extend its tourism marketing reach in China to woo more visitors, the country's tourism agency said Monday.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) acting CEO, Jacinta Nzioka-Mbithi, told Xinhua that their previous marketing efforts had been concentrated in the Chinese capital Beijing.

But now they are targeting more Chinese cities.

"We will soon roll out a program to target the second-tier cities that are not well familiar with Kenya as a tourism destination," Nzioka-Mbithi said.

According to the KTB, around 29,000 Chinese tourists visited Kenya in 2015, down from 33,000 the previous year.

The decline was attributed to the outbreak of Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which affected Kenya's overall international arrivals.

"However the decline of Chinese tourists was less when compared to key source markets of the US and Europe," Nzioka-Mbithi said.

She put the number of Chinese tourists expected to visit Kenya this year at more than 35,000, as the country has seen an increase in tourists so far this year.

"The tourists arrivals for the first three months of the year have improved by an average of 18 percent compared to last year."

The official also noted the high spending from Chinese tourists in Kenya.

"We are educating our tourism sector on how to develop products that cater for the Chinese tourists," she said.

In 2011, Kenya attracted 1.8 million tourists, the highest in history, while last year it drew 1.2 million.

The Kenyan government has been trying to revive the tourism industry after terror attacks staged by Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militants in recent years kept visitors away.

"The government has invested heavily in security and so we are optimistic that the tourism sector will recover," Nzioka-Mbithi said.