Magical Kenya Expo Kicks off in Nairobi

The 8th Magical Kenya expo was yesterday flagged off by the country’s Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife Kenya Najib Balala in Kenya.

The three-day Expo is taking place at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre {KICC} and will run up to 5th October.

This year’s MKTE has recorded 185 exhibitors, up from 140 that participated last year and the number of hosted buyers at this year’s expo has risen to 150 from last year’s 132.

The hosted buyers who began their familiarization tours last week are from Kenya’s key source markets around the world.

According to Hon Balala, Kenya is targeting to get 4 million tourists by 2030 and that the quadruple increase in the figures is part of their National Tourism Blueprint.

The NTB 2030 is the transformation framework for the tourism sector.

“We have embarked on the implementation of the National Tourism Blueprint 2030 which will enable Kenya quadruple the number of foreign tourist’s overnight arrivals to at least 4 million visitors by 2030”.

While addressing the congregation Balala said that the number of domestic tourists is further expected to double to 26,443,200 by 2030.

“The NTB has also set out more than double the contribution of tourism and job creation I Kenya’s economy to Kenyan shillings 1.14 trillion along with 561,800 direct jobs by 2030”.

Balala revealed that the Ministry’s strategy is to encourage international brands plus the local brands to go into the Western region, North rift and the beach destination.

“Infrastructure, investment, product development and marketing using digital platforms are a strong key in the tourism industry”