Kenya Tourism Board hosted a golf tournament for participants from all over the country to popularise the six-month-long domestic tourism campaign launched in July 2022.
Speaking at Machakos Golf Club during the golf tournament, Kenya Tourism Board Chief Executive Officer Betty Radier said recovery of international tourism was a bit slow and added that there was need to tap on the domestic market, which had ensured the survival of the sector during the lockdown.
“Recovery of the tourism sector in the 2021-2022 period is at 54 per cent and the sector was simply sustained by domestic tourism. The borders were closed and so we had to focus on domestic tourism as a pillar to drive the sector,”said Dr Radier.
Dr Radier stated that the Kenya Tourism Board is utilising regional golf clubs across the country to promote domestic tourism and that they have planned golf tour tournaments in ten golf clubs spread across key tourist attractions in the country to popularise the six-month-long domestic tourism campaign dubbed ‘you deserve a holiday’.
She said that the Magical Kenya Golf Tour will provide partners and operators with the ability to interact and market vacation packages to golf players and the general public through retail and business visit events.
“The new drive involves 21 partners which include golf clubs and the hospitality sector where Kenyans can book holidays on site as the players in the tourism sector visit their locality,” said Radier.
“The domestic market has proven its tenacity through difficult times, as demonstrated during the Covid-19 phase, and this is why we are looking for ways to tap into its potential,” she added.
Dr Radier said the target now was to harness 100 per cent of domestic tourists in order to grow the sector and the campaign also targets corporate bodies where the team will visit offices to persuade professionals who have been too busy to make bookings online.
Kenya Tourism Trust Fund Chairman Alfonce Kioko said that the task for the Machakos tourism circuit was to tap the tourism traffic from Nairobi given the proximity to the capital city.
“The Machakos Golf Club has over the years played a big role in domestic tourism, it provides a variety of recreational amenities, including golf courses, a steam room, a swimming pool, a gym, a snooker table, a rugby field and a football field,” Kioko said.
Mr. Kioko noted that other tourism attraction sites in the County include the iconic Machakos People’s Park, Kyamwilu anti-gravity hill where water flows uphill, the 14-falls and Masinga dam which is one of the seven forks scheme among other sites.
By Caroline Mutheu
