Kalonzo woos Spanish tourists

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka Wednesday urged a team of influential Spanish tour operators to intensify their campaign to have more Spanish tourists visit Kenya.

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka Wednesday urged a team of influential Spanish tour operators to intensify their campaign to have more Spanish tourists visit Kenya.

The Vice President said Kenya can learn from Spain which currently receives 60 million tourists per year, raking in billions of dollars for the Mediterranean country.

Through a well developed tourism sector as well as manufacturing, the Vice President noted that the Spanish economy has been the fastest growing in western Europe for the last one decade, making it the 8th biggest economy in the world today.

“The world has always come to Spain, it is now time the Spaniards visited the rest of the world including
Kenya” the Vice President said.

Mr. Musyoka noted that Kenya was already receiving substantial number of tourists from European countries such as United Kingdom, Italy and Germany and urged the Spanish to try the generous offerings available in the country.

The Vice President who was accompanied by Tourism Minister Najib Balala, said Kenya will take advantage of the FITUR Tourism Fair- the largest gathering of tour operators from Spanish speaking countries – to aggressively market the country’s unique touristic offerings of safari, wildlife, beaches, sports and culture.

“Most of the communities living in Kenya have preserved their cultures, we invite you to come and sample the warm hospitality, the captivating beaches, take a wonder-packed safari to the Maasai Mara and watch the Wildbeest migrations and even visit the place where our world-beating athletes
train” said Mr. Musyoka

The Vice President, who is in Spain attending the United Nations High Level Summit on Food Security, said the Kenya Government regretted that lack of direct flights between Spain and Kenya was hindering the travel of tourists.

He called on the Spanish national carrier IBERIA to consider resuming direct flights to Nairobi.

Mr. Musyoka also suggested that one of the ways of encouraging more Spanish tourists to Kenya was by getting the famous teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona to come to Kenya.

Mr. Balala told the tour operators that the government has invested a lot in improving infrastructure, especially roads, energy and other services to major tourist destinations.

He also said e-learning was one of the methods being used to teach Kenyans Spanish to enable them interact well with Spanish tourists.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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