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Countries in East Africa will market themselves as a single destination for the first time at a joint stand at this year’s WTM London.
The single East Africa Tourist Visa, which launched last summer, enables travellers to visit Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda under one visa.
Carmen Nibigira, the regional coordinator of the East Africa Tourism Platform, said the group was keen to put the message out to delegates at this year’s WTM London.
Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda will have individual stands at the event but will work together in a bespoke area devoted to East Africa tourism.
“For the first time, we have the East Africa Tourism Platform (EATP) and tourism boards hosting a joint stand featuring “Borderless borders: One Destination, One Visa”, in line with our vision of marketing the EAC [East African Community] as a single destination,” she said.
The EAC comprises six countries in East Africa: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
At present, the single tourist visa includes only Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda, but Nibigira said she hoped the neighbouring countries of Tanzania and Burundi would “join the vision in due course”, following the EATP’s “persistent lobbying”.
Nibigira said the latest figures for tourism in the region were encouraging, with Kenya in particular seeing sizeable growth. In the first four months of 2016, 261,404 tourists arrived by air – a 14% increase compared with the same period in 2015.
She said that while the region’s global tourist source markets remained vital, the area was also keen to keep boosting its tourist numbers from local markets. By April of this year, Kenya had received 24,454 EAC tourists – 9.4% of total tourist arrivals.
Nibigira added: “We are pleased to announce that we are seeing a significant growth in inter and intra-regional tourism numbers, something at EATP we see as one of our key priorities.
“Our eyes are set on the emerging middle class within the region. We believe inter and intra-regional tourism is taking shape in East Africa and our national governments are starting to invest in East Africa.”
