Balala: Let’s celebrate EA’s budding tourism

TOURISM. East Africa has many success stories to tell in the realm of achievements in the tourism sector, as a result of conscious efforts by the East African Community (EAC) member states working together to boost the sector.

While Tanzania has jumped into new frontiers to attract millions of visitors into teh country by next year, Kenyans are confident of boosting their tourism growth by ten per cent before the end of this year. Such examples of aggressive efforts are testament to how tourism contributes significantly in the region’s economic growth.

According to the report of the Assembly on the Oversight Activity on the Performance of the Tourism Sector in the region, EAC tourist arrivals have increased from 3.5 million in 2006 to 5.7 million persons in 2017.

However, this is still substantially low - given that it represents only 8.6 per cent of Africa’s market share and 0.3 per cent of the global market share. At the recently-held leading travel trade show of East Africa, ‘Magical Kenya Travel Expo’ (MKTE), in Nairobi last week, our reporter Tasneem Hassanali spoke with the Kenyan cabinet secretary for Tourism and Wildlife, Najib Balala, on how the region is positioned to lubricate efforts within to mark the region as one of the top travel hubs in the globe. Read on...

QUESTION: East Africa is one of the leading tourism hotspots in Africa, alongside the North African and Southern regions. What are the key trends that East Africa’s tourism and hospitality sector needs to address to stay ahead of the curve?

ANSWER: What we need to prioritise on is environmental sustainability in the industry [tourism] and this can happen by proactively working with local communities so that they can benefit from tourism. Along with this, we have witnessed a paradigm shift where tourism experience is enriched not only in the physical world but also digital.

My point being that as tourism stakeholders, we need to embrace technology, digital marketing, and the digital sphere to market experiences in the region. We also need to develop our infrastructure to ease connectivity within the regions and beyond. Lastly, standardisation of services and ratings of hotels will help ensure a certain quality level and help satisfy visitors’ needs.

Domestic tourism, historically speaking, is, in fact, the first form of tourism that was practised and today it continues to account for the most part of this activity by far. What are your thoughts on this and what can be done to improve domestic tourism?

Domestic tourism is a key market and a cushion to the sector when there is a slump from international arrivals. Not only this, the middle level is growing and has the power to spend – so we need to utilise on this. The advantage of focusing on this [domestic tourism] is that it is not influenced by any macro/global issues and requires minimal campaigns to influence.

To better domestic tourism within the regions, there should be incentives for both the providers and the tourists so as to increase and attract more local travellers. Another great way to boost local tourism is improving on the existing infrastructure and constructing new ones in those places where it does not exist. These include roads, railways, and airports, which will enhance reachability to many places even the remote places thus the local people can too be able to move from the destination origin to new places for tourism and leisure.

How do you forecast the impact of travel trade shows such as MKTE on tourism in East Africa?

We will definitely see growth in the travel and tourism industry through B2B meetings and pre-scheduled meetings between exhibitors and buyers at the expo. Along with this, we have profiled and showcased Kenya and other East African regions as a global MICE destination and that has come through our campaigns and strategies. The expo highlights newly established products and experiences.

Boosting regional tourism among the six East African Community (EAC) members have come with their own challenges. What sort of challenges do you see in the development of tourism in East Africa?

Politics, policy changes within the region, financial constraints, insecurity in the regions, health issues such as yellow fever and poaching are some of the challenges that are posing as obstacles to mark EA as the top travel destination in Africa.

On this note, how have you as a decision-maker collaborated with other countries in the region to boost East Africa’s tourism growth?

The unveiling of the East Africa Visa for tourists visiting the region has helped the member states to allow tourists maximise value for their money. Also, no visa required for citizens of the EA countries when visiting each country and this has been a major step towards promoting integration. We also formed an East African Community parliament that deals with issues arising within the region – from trade to security.

How has the East Africa Tourist Visa impacted the member states; Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda?

The single entry visa for foreigners visiting Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda simultaneously has facilitated to ease movements within the member states but also allowed the tourists to maximise value for their money.

The visa provides an opportunity to increase tourist numbers as the member states jointly offer diversified tourism products. The single joint visa will be cost-effective and will boost the strategy of repositioning tourism products in the region and besides making the three-member states competitive, it has been able to build on regional integration.