Bomas boosts MICE sector with modern facility
By Benard Sigei, October 31, 2021
The tourism and hospitality sector should leverage infrastructural improvement programme at Bomas of Kenya to deepen growth in the sector, Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has said.
Nalala said ongoing transformation of Bomas of Kenya is in the interest of economic prosperity and a bid to deepen the Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing and Exhibitions (MICE) subsector in the post-Covid-19 phase.
“We are in talks with the National Treasury with a view to finding ways of supporting Bomas of Kenya to become a modern MICE facility to boost cultural and business tourism,” the CS announced at an event to mark the state corporation’s 50th anniversary at it’s headquarters last week.
The celebrations culminated in the launch of an ultra-modern cultural and conference facility dubbed Baraza Hall which has a seating capacity of 950 delegates.
With the new facility, Bomas of Kenya’s conference facilities seating capacity now stands at about 5,500 making it one of the largest modern international convention and exhibition centres in East and Central Africa.
Bomas chief executive officer Peter Gitaa told guests that there is urgent need to invest in cultural tourism as a country because culture is a unique selling point in modern global tourism.
“As we modernize our conferencing and exhibition facilities, it gives us room for an innovative approach to cultural preservation and use of digital technology that will attract more local and international tourists,” Bomas of Kenya boss said while appealing for support from the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife as the public entity looks into a more sustainable future.
CS Balala urged the board and management of Bomas to moot new and innovative ways of integrating cultural tourism and business tourism so as to appeal to a wider market.
“Let us make Bomas of Kenya a transformative place for the whole country and not just Nairobi.
As you do this, try and make our culture more attractive to our young people,” the CS added as he called on Kenyan youth to appreciate our African culture as much as they appreciate modernity.