Kenya to intensify marketing efforts to woo more Chinese visitors

NAIROBI - Kenya plans to intensify marketing efforts in order to woo more Chinese visitors into the country, the tourism promotion agency said on Wednesday.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) Director of Marketing Jacinta Nzioka-Mbithi told Xinhua that the East African nation has just completed phase one of marketing campaign in China.

"We are working with the main tour operators of China in a joint tour promotion and the industry has reported a 40 percent increase in Chinese tourists visiting Kenya," Nzioka-Mbithi said.

"We want to focus our efforts in China because it is a very resilient market compared to traditional source markets of North America and Europe," she said.

Nzioka-Mbithi noted that China is a big market and has already been identified by the World Tourism Organization for their high spending tourists. "We are positioning Kenya so that we get a share of Chinese tourists spending," she added.

Government data also indicated that between January and October, 41,400 Chinese tourists visited Kenya, up from 25,300 in a similar period last year.

Last year, 1.18 million tourists globally visited the East African nation.

Nzioka-Mbithi said China is now the fifth largest source of tourists in Kenya and amongst the fastest growing markets.

The KTB said Chinese tourists can play a big role in developing a robust tourism industry which is very vulnerable to global economic conditions.

Currently, Kenya Airways and China Southern Airlines offer direct fights between the two countries.