Fountain Media: Fountain Media

The Kenya Tourism Board was nominated as the best Tourism Board in Africa during the 2012 International Tourism Bourse ITB event, as well as two of Kenya’s pristine beaches; Watamu and Diani voted as among top beaches in Africa.

As the country participates in this year’s ITB, Germany remains among the top five tourist source markets for Kenya and has been resilient compared to other markets in Western European countries in terms of consistently sending tourists to the country.

The performance in the tourism industry in the past has been affected by challenges such as Euro zone crisis and isolated incidences of insecurity, but the win against the war on Al shabaab through the conquering of Kismayu reassured the world that

Kenya is a safe destination. Indeed, cruise tourism has improved in the last three months with three vessels docking in the Port of Mombasa and one anchoring in Lamu with tourists mainly from Europe.

To build on these recent gains, Kenya will this year host the renowned World Travel Awards, the Magical Kenya Travel Expo where KTB will take lead as well as the

International Eco Tourism Conference and the Africa Hotel Investment (AHIF) Conferences slated for September, 2013. The four events will attract various tourism stakeholders and we expect that they will give Kenya a competitive edge to further market herself as a preferred tourism destination.

It is in this regard that we are calling upon all Kenyans to take personal responsibility in maintaining peace during the elections as peace is a key cornerstone of development. Tourism is a key contributor to Kenya’s GDP and along with other sectors in the economy cannot afford to be interrupted by the possibility of any election related conflict.