Arab States Keen to Tap into Kenya’s Tourism, Energy Sectors

By Henry Neondo

DOHA--The Government of Qatar has disclosed extensive plans to invest in Kenya’s tourism, energy and real estate sectors in Kenya.

Qatar’s envoy to Kenya, Galma Buru said proposals on investment in Kenya have been received well by Qatar government and other interested investors and disclosed that tourism sector is among the top in the priority list.

“Tourism is among the key economic pillars to the attainment of vision 2030 and it is good news when investors have shown interest to invest in the sector,” said the ambassador.

He made the remarks while closing a one-week long road show mounted by the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in a bid to woo in potential of visitors from the Middle East.

The road show ended in Doha Qatar.

According to the ambassadors, development of hotels, lodges and other tourism facilities have attracted Qatari investors.

He said accessibility to the country by the Qataris has been made possible by frequent scheduled flight by Qatar Airways, short distance to the country and the improved security.

“All these have provided the much needed opportunity for the investment,” said the ambassador.

KTB has mounted aggressive marketing campaigns in emerging markets such as GCC with United Arab Emirates (UAE) recording upward trends in the past few years.

UAE recorded an 82.6 per cent growth in arrivals as per 2010 statistics compared with 2007, the best performing year with 14,874 air arrivals up from 8,147.

KTB Managing Director Muriithi Ndegwa said KTB besides maintaining its presence in the traditional markets will focus on the emerging markets to tap its potential.

“We are keen in entering these new markets that have shown promising results in terms of tourist arrivals,” said Ndegwa.