Kenya Woos Nigerian Travellers to Boost Tourist Arrivals

In a renewed effort, Kenya is wooing holidaymakers and travellers from Nigeria to boost tourist arrivals as it looks to grow its tourism potentials. This was made known by Mr Alex Tunoi, the Marketing Manager of Kenya Tourism Board, during the Magical Kenya Roadshow held in Lagos to promote 'Magical Kenya' in the Nigerian market.

Organised by Kenya Tourism Board in conjunction with Kenya Airways, the event which was held at the Sheraton Lagos Hotel, Ikeja on Friday, 9 February, 2024 was attended by over 15 travel trade companies from Kenya, including travel agencies, hospitality providers, and destination management companies. The event was also attended by travel agencies from across Nigeria.

Speaking at the event, Mr Alex Tunoi said that Nigeria is key to Kenya’s efforts to attract more Africans to visit the East African country. Encouraging Nigerians to travel to and explore Kenya, he said that Kenya now has more tourism products that suit every taste and budget, including urban experience, vibrant night life, safaris and other exciting activities.

"At the moment, we are receiving just about 35,000 tourist arrivals from Nigeria annually, we intend to grow that number by 10%over the next couple of years. We have come with our trade partners like tour operators, hoteliers and more to develop packages for Kenya market.

“We are focusing on West Africa as part of our key source market to grow numbers of tourist arrivals. We noticed that Africans are beginning to travel and they are looking for new destinations to travel to. And we are here as Kenya to offer this opportunity. There are a lot of new development happening within the cities in Kenya, we can offer opportunities for shopping, golfing, safari, beach exploration and more. We are open for city adventure, the most patronised aspect of tourism in Kenya from Nigeria,” Tunoi said.

"The Kenya Tourism Board aims to market Kenya as sustainable, all year round diverse and authentic tourism destinations leveraging on its diverse products and professional private sector members to offer added activities and experimental holidas to increase yield and profits sustainably", he added.

The Marketing Manager, Mr Alex Tunoi, Kenya Tourism Board, made the call during the ‘Magical Kenya Roadshow’, held in Lagos, an event geared toward promoting tourism between Nigeria and Kenya.

Tunoi said that the roadshow was also organised to grow tourist arrivals to Kenya because of its enormous tourism potential.

Also speaking during the event, Mr Consaga Khisa, the Managing Director of Destination Connect, a tour company, said that the government of Kenyan has made efforts to ease all travel restrictions to make the country more accessible to tourists. According to him, Kenya is now a visa-free country for all Africans beginning January, 2024.

"Beginning this year, Kenya has become a visa-free destination, not only for Nigerians, but for all nationalities. In place of visa, Kenya now has an item called electronic travel document which is not only cheaper than visa, but also simpler in terms of the processes", Khisa said.

“We are here to foster relationships between Kenya tourism players and our partners in Nigeria. We welcome Nigerians to Kenya, our hotels and communication systems are of best standards, our airport transfer vehicles are fitted with wifi. We have the highest skating drills in Africa,” he added.

The Magical Kenya Roadshow held in Lagos was part of a larger plan by Kenya Tourism Board to attract more travellers from the West African market to visit Kenya. Earlier in the week, similar Roadshows were held in both Accra and Abuja.