Mombasa… The E-Tourism Conference, hosted by the Tourism Trust Fund, started today in Mombasa attracting over 100 delegates from the Tourism, ICT and financial services sectors. Safaricom, Africa Online and Kenya Airways were sponsors to the conference.

The conference was opened by Hon Raphael Muriungi the Assistant Minister for Tourism. Hon Muriungi stressed the need for both the public and private sector in tourism to work together and utilize all forms of online technologies.

“We are all learning of the rapid and unprecedented changes that ICT is creating in global tourism, and are beginning to realize that if both the private and public sector do not embrace both the web and new technologies then we stand to lose our ability to communicate and do business with a changing market. This is true for our entire continent”, said Hon Muriungi.

The main purpose of the conference is to raise awareness about e-tourism, web based marketing, information management and online communication. The conference will examine ways that both the public and private sectors can work together, especially in establishing an online booking portal. With more than 100 million travelers worldwide now using the web to book holidays and travel, it is vital that the Kenya tourism sector is highly visible on the Internet.

Dr. Henry Chasia from the NEPAD E-Africa Commission will launch the 2010 E-Tourism Initiative, which aims to establish an Africa wide portal for bookings and payments, and a host of other international guest speakers discussed potential solutions for local, regional and international e-business.

Dr Dan Kagagi, the CEO of the Tourism Trust Fund, highlighted the need for the tourism sector – both public and private, to embrace e tourism and to channel more money into web based marketing and online communication.

“The tourism sector must invest in the web and adopt internet marketing strategies. Many tourism companies need to make a radical shift in the way they market their services if they are to stay in business in the 21st century. The traditional ways of marketing tourism services are rapidly becoming out of date. The consequences for the Kenya tourism sector are quite dire if we find ourselves falling into this growing digital divide between the developed and developing world. Today gives us a great opportunity to catch up and get back into the digital race”, said Dr Kagagi.