Tourism-Kenya - There is need for more investment in establishment of four and five star hotels in the country which are important for growth of conference tourism, the Ministry of Tourism has said. Minister Najib Balala said the current bed capacity in Kenya of 50,000 at a time is low and cannot effectively support conference tourism. Kenya is seeking to grow this niche market which is highly valuable. "We have less that 15 per cent number of four and five star hotels in Kenya and we want this to increase to at least 40 per cent of all local hotels," said Balala. While the Kenyatta International Conference has been recognized as the number one meeting place in East Africa, Kenya ranks fourth in Africa in conference tourism after South Africa, Egypt and Morocco.

According to the last statistics on country and city rankings on conventions and meetings by the International Conference and Convention Association, Kenya was ranked at position 60 globally in 2009. Statistics for 2010 will be released in June this year.

To grow this niche, the government also recently signed a lease agreement with LaFarge Bamburi Cement Company for 15 acres of land located in Mombasa on which a convention centre will be built.

The Sh1 billion convention centre will have a capacity of 5000 people and will be developed jointly by the government and private sector players. Construction commencement has been marked for next year. "What we need is bed capacity because there will be no point of people coming here for conferences when there are not enough hotels for them to stay in," the minister said.

He added: I know that already there are four new hotels being built in Nairobi currently and several international hotel brands have expressed their interest in the country."

Meanwhile, South Africa Tourism's global e-marketing manager William Price has said faster internet connections, development of e-commerce and m-commerce and the growth of social media sites would accelerate growth in the tourism sector over the next five years.

Price who is in the country for the launch of e-tourism East African Roadshow on Tuesday said more African tourism products are needed online to take advantage of current developments in information technology.

Lola Okulo

Nairobi Star/24/05/2011