South African tourism to partner with KTB

Kenya's cooperation with South Africa in tourism will go up a notch when the two countries sign an agreement soon.

The memorandum of understanding to be signed by South African Tourism and the Kenya Tourist Board will see the two countries jointly market their key attractions.

The justification for the move is that a majority of visitors to both countries come from within Africa. 

Package

"Rather than trying to snatch tourists from one another, we can start selling our countries as a package," South African Tourism’s manager for Africa and Middle East, Tumaini Leshoai, told reporters in Nairobi yesterday. 

Mr Leshoai said a research by the tourism promotion agency in 2001 identified Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal as major tourist growth spots. The number of Kenyans heading south has been on the rise, following successful marketing forays in the East African country by South Africa.

Last year, the agency launched the 2005 Deal Driven Campaign, to encourage frequent travel in the Kenyan market with an affordable package. The number of Kenyans visiting South Africa rose from 19,549 in 2004 to 20,738 by the end of last year. 

The number of South African tourist arrivals in Kenya by far outstrips Kenyans visiting the rainbow nation annually. In 2004, 48,200 South Africans visited Kenya, up from 34,400 in the previous year. And in the first three months of this year, Kenyan tourist arrivals rose 6.8 per cent to 1,734 from 1,623 in March 2005. However, in 2004, in terms of number of African tourists visiting South Africa, Kenya was third after Angola and Nigeria.

"Given that we are headed for the high season, we expect a double digit growth this year," Mr Leshoai said during a travel trade workshop at The Stanley hotel in Nairobi for tour operators in both countries.

He said that the future of African tourism lies in travel by Africans in the continent, rather than visitors from other parts of the world. "World Travel Organisation projects that travel growth in Africa will outstrip travel elsewhere in the world by 2020," he said. 

Growth

Major commercial aircraft manufacturers say that Africa will require more than 640 new aircraft to meet growing demand for air travel over the next 20 years. Increasing trade and tourism ties between Africa and Europe, China, Middle East and North America will drive this growth in the air transport sector will be driven by the. 

Kenya, as the gateway to East and Central Africa, has already experienced traffic growth in excess of 70 per cent in the last six years. European commercial aircraft manufacturer, Airbus, says traffic growth to, from and within East Africa is expected to remain robust over the next two decades.

Mr Leshoai said the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa adds significant momentum in contributing to increased gross domestic product (GDP) growth, job creation and reducing poverty.