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KTB in new marketing strategy

NAIROBI, August 4 – The Kenya Tourism Board is now repositioning the country as a destination that will benefit from compulsory travel.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) Corporate Affairs Manager Rose Kwena said the new portfolio will feature packages like ‘honey mooning’ which is expected to attract visitors from the Far East.

Responding to concerns that the increased cost of living internationally has seen some popular destinations record fewer visitors, Kwena was emphatic that KTB is not ignorant to this fact.

“For instance, in Japan a man would literally commit suicide if he is not able to meet the destination wish of his wife to be,” Kwena mused.

“And it’s with such awareness that KTB is ensuring that it aggressively markets the country in this destinations in a bid to recover from the post election violence.”

So far, the board has spent Shs323 million to reconnect with its target markets and has earmarked an extra Sh430 million for this financial year.

An additional Sh600 million is intended for global consumer advertising which will include media advertisements expected to run on cable networks like CNN. 

KTB Acting Marketing Director Jennifer Opondo said the board is also concentrating on value addition in the new package.

“Which in this case means that when we bring in a tourist we want them not to concentrate on only on beach for instance, but also enjoy safari and cultural tourism all of which are available in this destination,” Opondo explained.

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Opondo explained that the board was focusing on quality travel that would instead of attracting masses translate to volumes which in her view was a more sensible approach for the ailing tourism industry.

While admitting that the board was yet to do enough to bring back the industry to its pre-election levels last year, Opondo expressed optimism that the marketing body’s plans on managing the crisis  were on track.

“It took us seven years last time to recover the industry, however this time round am sure we will manage the same in at least one and a half years,” KTB Managing Director Ongonga Achieng agreed.

Last week the board announced a 32 percent decrease in revenues for the first half of 2008 compared to the same period last year.

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