The Magical Kenya Expo took place between October 5th to 7th , 2022. MKTE 2022 is the 12th edition of its kind and will take place at the Bomas of Kenya. This year the Expo witnessed participants from around 35 countries across the world. It brought together 200+ exhibitors, 160+ hosted buyers, hosted media, and industry partners from Kenya’s key source markets in Asia, Africa, Europe and America.
MKTE 2022 was launched on 5th October by Najib Balala, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. During the press meet, Balala mentioned that Kenya looks beyond the traditional offerings and wants to give tourists a wide variety of options when visiting Kenya related to adventure such as mountaineering, hiking, rafting, cycling and many such similar sports. He emphasised on the need of an open sky policy for tourism in order to grow in Africa as airline connectivity contributes majorly to more than 60 per cent of arrivals. I urge the government to look into the sky policy and make sure tourists get an easy time to ensure safe travel within the region. We cannot expand without working on sky policies or with a lot of travel regulations for tourists both local, regional and international”, states Balala.
The Expo is important to the Kenya Tourism as it plans to network and facilitate the tourism business. This event aimed to highlight the richness and diversity of Kenya. The CEO of Kenya Tourism Board, Betty Radier said, “To keep pace with the fast-changing needs of visitors and challenges faced by the tourism industry, the industry has to act swiftly and adjust its strategies for tourism development from time to time. The learnings we shall pick from this expo will be invaluable as we work towards building the sector now and in the future.”
The Expo focused on coming together and working towards improving its infrastructure and safety, condemn negative publicity and promote all the positive content about the continent actively. He also spoke about the importance of heavy investment to grow the destination and make it move forward in travel and tourism. Mr Balala encouraged people to travel to different destinations on matters of tourism as it is a tool of peace, interaction and cohesion.
Besides interactions and business meetings, the event had some very interesting seminars like ‘Airline and Access,’ ‘Sustainability and Inclusive Tourism,’ ‘E-travel,’ and ‘The Future of Tourism and Resilience. Mastercard was the sponsor of MKTE 2022 and also participate in most sessions. The Ministry of Tourism partnered with Netflix to encourage the film industry in selling Kenya’s tourist attractions.
