{"id":806213,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/806213/?format=json","text_counter":276,"type":"other","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"FURTHER AWARE that Kenya Tourism Agenda 2018–2022 launched in April, 2018, establishes the foundation for the National Tourism Blue Print 2030 and is a tool for initiating the components for the Blue Print; ALSO AWARE that the contribution of travel and tourism to Kenya’s GDP, stood at 9.7 per cent in the year 2017, up from 9.3 per cent the previous year; COGNIZANT that in the next 10 years, every industry will be charged by technology; ALSO AWARE that the Kenya Tourism Board has partnered with Google, Safaricom, Kenya Wildlife Service and Tourism Finance Corporation to create new digital content for local tourism; CONCERNED that the Kenya tourism industry potential is underutilized; AWARE that Kenya’s position in the World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index is 80 out of 136 in 2017, having improved by two points from 2015, while having currently the lowest score in cultural resources and business travel with 1.6 points out of 7; FURTHER CONCERNED that majority of the solutions proposed by the Tourism Agenda are brick and mortar type and not addressing the trends; NOTING that in less than two years, the share of online booking globally has grown from 9 per cent to almost 33 per cent; and that, it is the most lucrative and fastest growing segment of the business tourism; ALSO CONCERNED that Kenya will continue to attract only beach and park type tourists, ignoring the large numbers of conference and business travellers who largely never leave Nairobi and are offered minimal exposure to Kenya; NOW THEREFORE, the Senate calls upon the Ministry of Tourism to approach tourist sector with modern innovation and implement tangible measures and impart solutions, resulting in improvement of Kenya ranking in the World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2019 by six positions, and improve the lowest scores of cultural resources and business travel by one point."}