Kenya Airways, KTB in partnership to spur Kenya’s tourism

Kenya Airways (KQ) and Kenya Tourism Board will embark on an enhanced strategic partnership aiming to market the destination to attract more visitors especially from emerging and key source markets to Kenya.

The partnership entails a global marketing collaboration between KQ and KTB that targets, for the first time, a broad spectrum of leisure and business visitors in various markets especially in Africa. The partners will also be jointly investing in the co-development of new products by sharing ideas, knowledge and resources.

The Cabinet Secretary for Tourism Najib Balala, Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Mbuvi Ngunze and Kenya Tourism Board Managing Director Dr Betty Radier unveiled the Magical Kenya branding one of the airline’s Dreamliner, Boeing 787, in Embakasi. The aircraft mainly ply’s the carriers European, Asian and some African routes.

“Our partnership continues to expand the scope of our collaboration reflecting our long-term commitment to further promote a flourishing and vibrant tourism industry in Kenya.

Working closely with KTB as our partners is critical to amplifying Kenya’s tourism development and attract more quality visitors,” said Mbuvi. “This partnership underscores the importance of the airline in creating linkage between Kenya and the world thus growing the country’s economy, especially the tourism sector.”

Kenya Airways continues with its expansion in Africa and will on May 1 launch its 54th destination to Victoria Falls, in Zimbabwe, as part of its ‘Winning in Africa’ strategy by offering connectivity through Nairobi.

“We seek to drive our tourism development to the next level by leveraging on each other’s consumer and trade insights to ensure that travellers have a more in-depth Kenyan experience that meets their needs and wants,” said Ms. Radier.

Radier noted that most of the consumers already have a strong brand affinity to both KQ and KTB, and would be able to easily relate to joint marketing initiatives and products.

Beyond branding the plane KTB will also brand the aircrafts headrests driving brand visibility across all markets the aircraft operates.

The partnership comes at a time the tourism sector has recorded remarkable recovery benefiting from aggressive marketing in the domestic and international markets. According to the 2017 Economic Survey the sector’s earnings increased by 17.8 per cent to Sh99.7 billion in 2016, compared to Sh84.6 billion the previous year.