Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda unveil joint tourism portal

What you need to know:

The portal will be a shared platform for travel and tourism players from the three countries to place their tourism packages and provide a new channel to reach out to regional and international markets.
It will also allow access to information on tourist products, destinations and experiences on a single platform.
Rwanda said the region would perform better if the countries jointly marketed their attraction sites.

Three East African countries have launched an online portal in a bid to jointly market the region’s tourism products.

Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda can now advertise tourism products online to source markets across the world via a shared platform (http://eadp2.hexakomb.com/).

The initiative will be a platform for travel and tourism players from the three countries to place their travel packages and provide a new channel to reach out to regional and international markets.

It will also be a one-stop-shop for information on tourist products, destinations and experiences with the aim of enhancing access to information.

“The launch of the portal comes at a time when East African countries are jointly working towards marketing the region as a single destination,” Kenya Tourism Board chief executive officer Betty Radier said during the launch of the initiative in Kampala last weekend.

“By coming together, it would be much easier for tourists who want to visit Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda to do so as the destinations are in one region,” she added.

GREATER CONNECTIVITY

The KTB boss explained that international holidaymakers will be able to choose from a variety of tourism products spread across the region thanks to improved road and air connectivity between the countries.

The portal was launched on the sidelines of a Ugandan travel show, Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo, which began on Friday and ended Monday.

A Kenyan delegation led by KTB was also in Uganda to market local tourism products and attraction sites to woo more Ugandan holidaymakers.

Uganda is Kenya’s largest tourist source market in Africa with the country receiving 51,023 tourists from the neighbouring country, up from 29,038 in 2015.

Ugandan Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community, Kirunda Kivenjinja, called on partner states to fast-track efforts to market the region as a single destination, saying the move would improve the sector's performance.

Rwandan High Commissioner to Uganda Frank Mugambage said the move was a reality and called on the authorities to actualise it.

“Rwanda is committed to supporting joint marketing efforts for the region to attract more tourists to help create jobs and economic growth,” he said.