NAIROBI, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to achieve annual tourist number of 4 million from the current 1.4 million by the end of 2022, head of the country's tourism marketing agency said Friday.
"Our medium-term target is 4 million tourists. This is a market that in the long term we should be having 10 million tourists every year," said Betty Radier, chief executive officer of the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB).
According to the KTB, Kenya received 1.4 million tourists in 2017, which is below the historic high of 1.8 million in 2007 just before the post-election violence that year devastated the economy.
"We are getting there and this year, our target is to reach the 2007 levels of 1.8 million tourists," said Radier.
She said Kenya is diversifying its tourism products from the safari and beach tourism to appeal to more tourists.
"Today is about experience one gets and is not just about visiting a place. Therefore, we want to have signature products," said Radier in a media roundtable in Nairobi.
Radier said one of the key focus areas will be investing in growing domestic tourism, which has been growing by 20 percent annually.
Kenya will also invest more in conservation and eco-tourism, which Radier said is becoming a signature product.
She said Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have started joint marketing of their tourism products.
"The idea is to offer variety. So instead of Kenya being known as a place of the big five animals, we can include gorillas in Rwanda and we are therefore able to offer more value to visitors," said Radier.
But she said intra-African tourism is affected by the high taxation levied on airlines, a burden that is transferred to the travelers, making the air tickets expensive.
