Tourism for green growth: Where are we failing as a region?

Nairobi. There is so much to experience when touring the East African region. From the pristine beaches of Zanzibar, Tanzania and Diani, Kenya to the adventurous terrains of Kilimanjaro, the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda and even the Volcanoes National Park in Musanze, Rwanda; the thrills are never-ending.

The recent culmination of the third edition of the East African Regional Tourism Expo (EARTE), which ran alongside the thirteenth edition of Kenya’s flagship tourism expo, Magical Kenya Travel Expo (MKTE), saw a collective of buyers, exhibitors, tourists and officials alike settle in for engaging conversations and networking activities with the singular aim to promote East Africa as an unrivalled tourism destination.

The conference was held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi and while the MKTE is Kenya’s flagship travel expo, EARTE is a product of all member states of the East African Community and as such, host rights are rotated each year, with the first having being held in Tanzania in 2021 and the second in Burundi, in 2022.

Running under the theme “Tourism for green earth”, the event was structured to address issues around sustaining the region’s tourism diversity, looking at conservation efforts to secure critical habitats and life forms across the region, facing and navigating the challenges and effects brought around by climate change, bringing tourism directly to the locals as well as diversification of regional tourism products.

The overarching objective of the expos is to promote EAC as a single tourism destination, provide a platform for tourism service providers’ business to business (B2B) engagements, create awareness on tourism investment opportunities and address the challenges affecting the tourism and wildlife sectors in the region.

The expos comprise exhibitions by the tourism service providers, speed networking and B2B meetings and seminars on tourism and wildlife sub-themes.

Among the issues this edition has been able to bring to light is how localised activities and programmes in different destinations such as rehabilitative programmes of turtle and crab conservation in Malindi, beach clean-up and maintenance in Watamu as well as Island management across different beach-fronts in Kenya that have proven a win-win-win for the locals, government and tourism growth.

Celebrating diversity in culture was another highlighted experience. The Ingoma Z’ Uburundi drummers from Burundi who performed during the official launch and other periods of the expo up until the closing ceremony, mesmerised the guests with sounds often played during important events. The drums are played by men only and the performance originated from central Burundi.

The Orupaap Cultural Foundation from South Sudan performed different dances such as the Chillo dance which is a biography of the Chillo tribe, located in the Upper Nile Region of South Sudan and the Balanda (Gazah Dance), which originates from the Western Bhar-el-gazal region.

The Hoza Group from Rwanda performed a happy dance called Igushumiye Kwakira Abashitsi often performed to welcome guests and other happy ceremonies.

The Bomas of Kenya performed, among many, the Isikuti Dance which comes from the Western region of Kenya, native to the Luhya tribe. The dance is often performed after a successful harvest.

Guest of Honour at the official opening ceremony of the expo and representing the president of Kenya, Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife, Hon Dr Alfred Mutua began his remarks with “Show me the money!”

He went on to explain that at the end of the day, tourism is about growing the economy. Stating country figures from a 2022 review, the Cabinet Secretary mentioned a few statistics that have had attendees ponder in question as to what other countries have that we do not.

“Morocco has a population of 37 million people and received 8.7 million tourists, South Africa has a population of 62 million and received 6.8 million tourists. Kenya has a population of 54 million and received only 1.48 million tourists, Tanzania, with a population of 65 million people, only received 1.4 million tourists and Uganda, with a population of 47 million, only received 815, 000 tourists,” he said.

He further listed the Bahamas, with a population of only 400,000 people receives 207 million tourists, the Maldives with nearly half a million in population, received 1.8 million tourists and Spain, with no islands, elephants or giraffes, and a population of 47 million, saw about 71 million tourists. France has a population of 67 million and received 79 million tourists and Italy, with its population at 59 million, received 50 million tourists.

“We must ask ourselves what these people have that we do not have. Why are people flocking to these countries while we have more to offer,” he queried. “We need to think critically about why people aren’t coming to our continent and what we need to do to fix this.”

“The first thing we need to talk about is connectivity. We’ve made it so difficult for to connect. I call upon key players in the aviation industry to open routes and connect the continent.”

The second is the issue of security and health. Do we provide an environment where people feel safe and secure when they come to our country? Many of these tourists read news of conflict in some of our partner states and this creates a sense of insecurity they would rather not deal with.

We must also address the issue of perception and market ourselves appropriately. Diversity of our products is key because now the world wants more than the usual safari and beach destinations. “The age of tourists has become younger and they want adventure and things they’ve not seen, much of which has not been marketed,” Dr Mutua said.

“We’ll be putting together new circuits that will feature many things such as sports tourism, food tourism and climate change tourism.” We must also be in a position to consider the comfort of our visitors, especially those visiting remote destinations and avoid situations where they have to go out of their way for basic necessities.

Dr Mutua emphasised that now is the time to look at what the world wants and pivot to position ourselves to be able to give those opportunities. He called for us to go the extra mile so we are able to attract the world to East Africa.

The Principle Secretary-State Department for Tourism Kenya, Hon John Ololtuaa expressed his gratitude for what these events signify for tourism in the region, and encouraged active sampling of what each member state has to offer.

Cluster Co-ordinator and representative of the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), Dr Bjoern Ritcher highlighted how important a sector tourism is in terms of GDP contribution for all the member states, altogether contributing to almost 10 percent of the growth and almost 7 percent of the jobs in the region.

“When it comes to regional integration in the EAC, tourism plays a major role for integration and furthering the economy in the partner states,” Dr Ritcher said, adding that it is one of the reasons the GIZ supports the EAC Secretariat and its partner states, not only with the expo but even beyond in terms of capacity building for tour operators to be able to provide quality services to guests meaning tourists are able to expect the same quality of services across the region.

“The focus now is to go with the regional marketing and fostering the regional brand for two main markets, the inter-regional markets which was already launched with the campaign running under the name ‘Tembea Nyumbani’, and the wider global market,” he shared.

Deputy Secretary General of the East African Community, Ms Annette Ssemuwemba also took to the stage, sharing the challenges and plans for EAC tourism. “The treaty established in the East African Community calls for collective efforts in promoting quality tourism and wildlife conservation for socio-economic development,” she said.

“The Covid-19 pandemic had severe impact on the tourism sector in the EAC but we now see the sector’s recovery with positive projections with an increase of arrivals to 14.5 million by 2025 from 7.2 million in 2019,” she said and adds that it will take a lot of joint hard work for us to achieve these numbers.

Some of the challenges she noted include infrastructure development for which the partner states have been doing investments to meet.

Diversification in the offerings that region has to offer to be able to compete with other regions that have similar offerings.

Developing in a sustainable manner is also another crucial element she highlighted to be able to protect the environments and local communities. Leveraging on regional integration and working collaboratively as a bloc through the single tourist visa will also make it easier for tourists to travel around the region and experience the diverse attractions.

Other opportunities presented include new tourism products being developed in eco-tourism, culture tourism and adventure tourism and technology can be leveraged to improve tourism as well.

“The commitment from the EAC Secretariat to develop the sector is very strong through as shown through the Tourism Marketing Strategy 2021-2025 and we are working to develop the regional tourism standards to ensure that tourists have a high-quality experience,” Ms Ssemuwemba said. These areas include accommodation, transportation and other tour operations.

“While EAC partner states have unique tourism strengths, working together is essential to branding EAC as a single tourism destination, and adopting the brand ‘Visit East Africa and feel the vibe’, EAC is confident in a robust tourism recovery,” she said in conclusion.