A year ago, upon completion of the 39th annual Africa Travel Association Congress in Kampala, Uganda handed over the baton to Kenya, the host country for the 40th annual Congress. It was in Nairobi in 1975 when a young ATA held its first ever congress, after that returning to Magical Kenya every ten years in special recognition of the close ties and bond created between the inaugural host country and the New York-based association.
Unlike SKAL International, supposedly a global tourism friendship association, which hastily dumped Kenya as their venue for their world congress in favor of Spain over security concerns, ATA stood by the country and throughout the year never once wavered in their resolve to hold this event at the place where it all started forty years ago in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city.
The congress, which will bring ATA members from North America and from across Africa to Nairobi, comes relatively close at the heels of a very successful Magical Kenya Travel Expo, which this year took place at the sundrenched beaches of Diani and takes place just two weeks prior to the visit of Pope Francis.
Both events are no doubt giving Kenya a marketing boost, adding on the confidence shown by the Kenyan team in the just concluded World Travel Market in London. While the September arrival figures are still down compared to last year, has renewed confidence set in that demand for vacations in Kenya is on the rise again, and twenty high profile media professionals from around the world have been invited to cover the congress and explore the country to tell their readers at home, that Magical Kenya is not just a marketing slogan but that Africa’s magic indeed exists and is found here.
Kenya Airways, the Pride of Africa, as event airline, has flown in hundreds of delegates and congress participants from across their network, giving visitors a first warm Jambo the moment they stepped on board.
An extensive program is going underway this morning, with delegates having the option of a 05.30 a.m. departure from their hotels to visit the Nairobi National Park and experience daybreak in the wilderness just a few miles from the Central Business District. Gameviewing is rich with rhinos, lion and plenty of plains game seen in the space of a morning drive across the park, a must do activity in fact for any visitor to Nairobi lacking the time to do a proper safari.
Notably will on Thursday this week the eTN Publisher and President Juergen Thomas Steinmetz be part of a global media panel discussion on how to better showcase Africa and its many attractions. Steinmetz will speak Monday on the role of media in promoting travel and tourism.
