Kenya to upgrade personnel skills to boost tourism

2020-11-24 15:35:38 GMT2020-11-24 23:35:38(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

NAIROBI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to upgrade skills of its tourism personnel in order to boost recovery of the sector, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

Najib Balala, cabinet secretary for tourism, said that in 2020, the industry is likely to generate only half of last year's revenues due to travel restrictions put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19.

"In order to boost recovery of the tourism and hospitality sector, workers need re-skilling, re-invention and innovation," Balala said during the virtually tourism and hospitality professionals' roundtable and the launch of the masters in hospitality business management program at Strathmore University in Nairobi.

Balala noted that in 2019, approximately 2.05 million international tourists visited Kenya generating about 175 billion shillings (about 1.6 billion U.S. dollars) in revenues.

He observed that the sector will not fully recover until mid-2021 due to international travel restrictions currently in place by most countries.

Balala added that tourists are quite informed and therefore equally demanding, owing to the advances in information and communications technologies which means that decisions as to the choice of travel to destinations are made based on real time information and not necessarily the tourist brochures.

"Therefore, the personnel of tomorrow in the tourism sector will need to be passionate about the industry. They will be required to be professionals who can multi-task and be excellent as all-rounded workers," he revealed.

According to the ministry of tourism, Kenya's safari and beach tourism products face rising competition from the traditional competitors as well as new destinations.

"Skills upgrading is therefore key in offering diverse product experiences," Balala said. Enditem

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