Tourism Cabinet Secretary, Najib Balala, officially opened the 5th Annual Hotelier Summit Africa-Sub Sahara 2018 (HSA 2018 Kenya) held at the new Movenpick Hotel in Westlands, Nairobi.
The Annual Hotelier Summit, Africa-Sub Sahara brings together leaders from around the continent that include C-suite investors, government officials, high net worth individuals, hotel owners and developers, hotel operators, architects, interior designers, project management consultants, professionals, advisory specialists and sustainability experts to promote business consultations and best practices in order to build sustainable partnerships.
The aim of the summit is to transform Africa into a visible tourism destination with investment potential by providing major buyers and sellers of the hospitality industry a platform to discuss projects that will help build a richer, better Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Vision of HSA 2018 Kenya is to realign the stakeholders in the Sub-Saharan real estate map by engaging investors, high net worth individuals, consultants and suppliers with government agencies.
Kenya's role in HSA 2018 is to be the initiator and a prime destination in the continent, hosting the event as a hub for Investors and African countries to promote business relations and learn from each other’s experiences in order to build sustainable partnerships.
The prime emphasis of this conclave is to facilitate consultations between shareholder, owners and investors as well as build a platform for African governments and African Investors to learn how to make projects bankable.
CS Balala challenged the hospitality industry to redefine hospitality by adapting to the latest global trends, which have shown paradigm shift from the traditional sale of tourism services to sale of tourism experience, in response to increasing change in international travelers’ tastes and demand for authentic experiences.
He also urged them to market Africa's beautiful stories of people, culture, geographic, survival and reinvention.
Balala said, "As Africa and Kenya, we need to sell our stories to beat the perception of the world on the region. Moreover, with this in mind Kenya has come up with a National Tourism Blue print, to align our tourism sector to the demands of our new, chic and demanding clientele of millenials."
Some investors, experts, consultants, successful story tellers will also address the floor to explain about the scale of projects they would be expecting from Kenya and other African countries for them to invest in.
HSA 2018 Kenya, runs from 17th - 18th May, 2018.