CS Balala turns to private sector to market tourism

The Ministry of Tourism has enlisted the help of private sector senior executives to come up with a new Brand Kenya campaign.

The move is aimed at positioning Kenya as a favorable tourist destination by leveraging on individual brands to drive the tourism message.

The imitative dubbed the Tourism-20 Taskforce aims at encourage local corporate originations to back tourism recovery efforts.

Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala said corporate organizations have as much to lose from a declining tourism sector hence the need to involve a team to create a narrative that promotes the sector.

“We want them to contribute to this imitative and we want it to be drive by the private sector so that it can be professionally and the same way it’s done by their own brands such as Equity and Coca Cola. I believe there are many success stories in this country,” Mr Balala said.

The taskforce is the brainchild of Mr Balala and Trade and Industrialization Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed.

The team, which will be led by Equity Bank Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi will have three months to come up with a new Brand Kenya Marketing campaign focused on tourism.

“People when buying products first buy the company before they buy the product and that’s why the mandate was raised to people buying Kenya before becoming tourists.  The initiative creates that company called Kenya and that’s what we’ll use to communicate to the entire world,” Mr Mwangi said.

The Ministry of Tourism has set aside Sh200 million for the taskforce, but the private sector team is expected to match the fund to ensure its commercial viability.

The tourism sector has been on a rebound in 2016, with the Kenya Tourism Board setting a target of hosting 1.6 tourists by the end of the year.

Mr Mohammed said his ministry was ready to support collaborative initiatives aimed at improving the sector between government and private business.

“In Kenya, the government has done very well in collaborating with the private sector; perhaps we now need to ask, what is it that we need to be doing as partners to improve tourism which has significant direct and indirect on the rest of the economy,” he said.

Those present during the first meeting included Kenya Airways boss Mbuvi Ngunze, Vivo Energy MD Polycarp Igathe, Centum Investments CEO James Mworia and businessman and Brand Kenya Chairman Chris Kirubi.

Report by Hilda Wathithi