Kenya has been urged to diversify its tourism marketing methods to attract a broad range of tourists from in international market.
For a long time, the Kenya tourism sector has failed to attract young tourists due to the use of old methods of marketing. This includes; trade fairs, World Tourism Markets, brochures and use of newspapers and television for advertising in key markets.
These marketing methods have failed to appeal to young tourists who prefer getting information about travel destinations online especially through social networks which have revolutionalized communication across the globe.
According to the head of E-Tourism Africa Damian Cook, Kenya should encourage online bookings and other modern methods of tourism marketing to appeal to young tourists.
Cook maintained that Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) mode of marketing only attracts elderly tourists sidelining the young generation who are the future and potential market for the sector.
“Social sites such as facebook are clocking 1 billion active users by the end of the year. This is a potential market for the tourism in Kenya to tap in,” said Cook.
“If a tourist traveling to Kenya has 1000 friends on facebook or followers on twitter, for example, they travel with them through updating their status and uploading pictures. This generates a lot of interest for more people who may wish to visit same destinations,” added Cook.
With 50 percent of the world’s population being people under the age of 30 years, tapping into young market online is crucial and a huge opportunity for the tourism sector to boost tourism profits.
The use of old methods of marketing such as travel agents has led to reduction in tourism earnings as this agencies tend to suggest where people go and to some extent pick the destinations making tourist products redundant . As a result, a great deal of the revenue goes to large, international hotel chains and not much of the money is retained locally.
A report released by Tourism minister Najib Balala stated that Tourism sector registered plausible results in 2011 hitting the 2million mark in terms of cross border arrivals.
The report further indicated a 16 percent growth in arrivals by air and sea closing at 1,265,136, compared to 2010s 1,095,842. The slow growth has been attributed to the misinterpreted presence of Kenya Defence Forces in Somalia and the lack of aggressive online marketing.
