The Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers (KAHC) is hosting an annual symposium that brings together key stakeholders in the tourism industry.
The conference which will take place on Thursday and Friday this week at Neptune Paradise Beach Resort and Spa in South Coast will discuss pertinent issues that affects the industry.
Key participants for the conference are hotels, lodges, restaurants, membership clubs, conferences and airlines.
The KAHC Chief Executive Officer, Mike Macharia said the meeting will provide a forum for stakeholders in the hospitality industry to seek ways to make Kenya a preferred tourist destination.
”We must look for ways to improve our products so as to make the country a destination of choice,” said Macharia.
The conference comes at a time when the industry is showing steady improvement where the number of both local and international visitors have increased significantly.
Recent statistics by the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife showed the country received more than 2 million tourists in 2018 and a record Sh.157 billion, a 31.2 per cent increase over the 2017 figure when the county garnered Sh.119 billion in the sector.
According to Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary (CS), Najib Balala, the number of international tourists that visited the country in 2018 rose to 2,025,206 from 1,474,671in 2017.
Balala added that the domestic visitors increased from 3,645,243 in 2017 to 3,974,243 last year.
By Mohamed Hassan
