In view of growing appetite of the Indian middle classes to travel, especially overseas, Kenya has set a target of exceeding the 2019 record of Indian tourist arrivals.

Kenya is now aggressively targetting the Indian outbound tourism market and hopes to see a record number of arrivals from India to the East African nation in 2023.

With that objective in mind, Kenya has mounted a high-level and large delegation of tourism professionals to visit India in order to interact with the travel fraternity and generate greater demand for visits to Kenya.

According to a press statement, Kenya is relying on the increasing appetite for leisure travel amongst the Indian youths and professionals to increase its tourism arrivals from the market.

The country is seeking to grow its visitor numbers from India, the top five performing tourism source market to Kenya to surpass the 2019 figures of over 120,000 visitors.The statement adds that in 2022, the arrivals into Kenya from India recorded a growth of 93.2 pc from 42,159 in 2021 to 81,458 in 2022. This is a recovery of 67 pc compared to the 2019 performance of 120,893.

Kenya’s High Commissioner to India Willy Bett says the Indian community has the potential to add to the international tourism visitation into Kenya.

He said the current travel trend shows that that segment has the disposable income and ready to travel to tourism destinations.

“This segment has really exploded in India and ready to spend for their travels. Kenya is in the right position to tap into this market and grow tourism business,’’ says the top Kenyan diplomat in India.

Bett, who was speaking at the opening of Outbound Travel Mart (OTM), a tourism fair in Mumbai India, further observed that ease of access and close ties between Kenya and India were major ingredients for the tourism business and other investments into Kenya.

“Besides other airlines, the recent launch of Kenya Airways direct flight from Mombasa to Dubai has an impact on India’s travellers as those seeking beach leisure in the Kenyan coast can fly directly from Dubai,’’ said Bett.

He added that e-visa application for Indian travellers to Kenya has increased owing to timely processing which takes a maximum of 72 hours.

Kenya is increasing its physical presence in India after the Covid-19 pandemic with 14-travel trade from the private sector attending a 3-day long tourism exhibition that began on February 2 that is also attended by over 160 exhibitors from other destinations.

The Kenyan trade has also mounted roadshows for direct business-to-business meetings with the Indian travel agents in key cities of India including Ahmedabad, Bangalore and New Delhi.

The High Commissioner, at the same time, challenged the travel trade to develop packages for golfers, a segment he pointed out was a game changer in revenue receipts to the country.

“Countries like Thailand are getting golfers from India, yet we as a country equally have better golf facilities spread across all regions of the republic, besides hosting European golf tour tournaments that has cemented Kenya as a golfing destination.  This is the area we need to explore to its maximum. Travel agents need to come up with packages for this,” he said.

Kenya, as a filming destination amongst Indian filmmakers, added the ambassador was also key in keeping the destination top of mind among travellers.

He said relevant agencies and partners would be looking into viable incentive arrangements to attract more filmmakers into Kenya.
Kenya Tourism Federation Chairman Fred Odek said the exhibitions and other promotional programmes by the trade in India was expected to bring tourism numbers from the country to about 130,000 by close of the year.

He said Kenya was well placed and endowed with tourism resources to compete other destination in the world adding that Kenya’s hospitality sector has strived to keep pace with the changing needs of today’s traveller.

“As a tourism sector, we have not been left behind in the dynamic demands of the traveller, the diverse tourism offering to meet the different needs of the visitor and value for money is what has kept Kenya as a destination above others,” said the KTF chairman.