Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) targets a 20% growth in the number of delegates set to participate in the 13th edition of the Magical Kenya Travel Expo (MKTE).
The regional tourism fair, scheduled to run between the 2nd to 4th October, 2024 at the Uhuru Gardens National Monument and Museum in Nairobi, is expected to bring together about 3,000 participants including tour operators, hoteliers, travel agents and travel trade visitors.
About 2,500 tourism business people participated in the 3-day long fair last year that is increasingly gaining popularity as a premier regional travel show with KTB seeking to position the expo for bigger global involvement.
The 13th edition of the expo is part of the destination repositioning activities geared towards the attainment of the targeted number of 3 million visitors into the country by close of the year.
KTB Chief Executive Officer June Chepkemei, while announcing the dates for the event, expressed her optimism that the expo will go a long way in repositioning Kenya for tourism business not only within the continent but globally.
“For the past 12 years, MKTE has been the premier business to business tourism platform for the region bringing together all tourism players for insightful business transactions. This continues to be a trademark of the expo even as we work to maintain Pan African travel trade participation and cement Kenya’s position as a leading tourism destination,” said Chepkemei.
The travel fair will mark its 13th edition as Kenya sets her eyes on the African market that has shown resilience and steady growth in the highly competitive and fragile tourism industry.
According to last year’s tourism sector performance, Africa closed at about 0.8 million visitors to Kenya representing a 41% market share of total international arrivals into the country.
The Europe market reported a 30% market share with 0.6 million arrivals into Kenya while Americas market posted a 17% market share with about 0.3 million visitors into Kenya.
MKTE is highly structured for business, bringing in about 160 carefully selected and vetted buyers from Kenya’s key source markets in Europe, the US, Asia, Africa.
The expo has also been instrumental in allowing over 60% of local small and medium travel enterprises and start-ups to access international markets and build linkages.