NAIROBI, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan business tourism stakeholders said Monday they have launched a campaign to market and position the country as a favorable business events and conferencing destination at the IBTM show in Barcelona.
The chief executive officer of Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) Nana Gecaga said Kenya is among the 15,000 conference tourism industry players that will participate in this year's IBTM Barcelona show, an annual global event for meetings and events industry.
"This shows the country is taking up its position as a preferred Conference Tourism destination in Africa. KICC continues to work closely with the private sector to position Kenya as the preferred business and conference tourism destination," Gecaga said in the statement issued in Nairobi.
She said KICC has made deliberate efforts to include partners in aggressive marketing of the destination by taking up a bigger elaborately branded exhibition stands.
The IBTM show is expected to reap business leads that will be followed up as potential conferences and events to be hosted in Kenya.
Kenya has a total of 180 hosted buyer appointments and several group presentations that will be providing leads for potential conventions and incentives to travel to Kenya.
"Most conferences that the country hosts are through bidding and aggressive follow up from the government and private sector," Gecaga said.
She said Kenya has recently raised its profile owing to the high-end international conferences it has hosted in the recent past, thereby making its bid to host more international conferences much easier.
