Participants network at break time during a conference at Kigali
Convention Center. Kenyan hospitality industry is losing out millions of
shillings annually to Rwanda. PHOTO | CYRIL NDEGEYA | NMG
The Kenyan hospitality industry is losing out millions of
shillings annually to its Rwandan counterpart as the international
community shifts focus on conference hosting to the neighbouring
country.
Failure by local hotels to adopt sustainable
tourism policies and failure by the government to incentivise and market
the country as a meetings destination are the major reasons behind the
shift, investors were told on Tuesday.
“A look at our
MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) calendar shows that
right now we have more international conferences heading to Rwanda than
to Kenya because the international community sees Rwanda selling itself
as a green destination,” Kezy Mukiri, founder of Zuri Events and
convener of the MICE Summit said.
This is backed by
data by the International Conference and Convention Association (ICCA),
an organisation that analyses trends on global conventions, which shows
Kenya hosted 17 global conferences last year compared to 21 held by
Rwanda.
The report further ranked Rwanda as the third
most-preferred destination in East Africa for international conferences
last year, with Kenya placing fourth in a tie with Egypt and Ethiopia.
The
trend follows the growing reputation of Rwandan hotels after the
government in 2014 set up a convention bureau to market the private
sector as a meetings, events and conferences hub.
The agency was directly involved in organising several
high-profile events including the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Global
African Investment Summit, the African Union Summit (AU) and the Africa
Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) in 2016.
Ms Mukiri
reckons there is need for the Kenyan government to move fast and
establish a similar agency that has been in the pipeline since last year
in order to match strides made by Rwanda.
Kenya’s
efforts to grow its MICE industry have however been boosted by the
upcoming Global MICE Summit to be held in Nairobi this November.
The
event will help local players in the hospitality and tourism industry
to learn from their international counterparts in leading MICE
Destinations such
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