Kenya depends on biking safaris to promote domestic travel

Friday, May 4, 2018

Tourism marketing department of Kenya stated about their plans to start promoting domestic travel by undertaking three mountain bike races commencing this weekend.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) mentioned on Thursday that it has partnered with cycling events organizer, Ngong Hills Individual Time Trial (NHITT) with an aim to promote this sporti8ng event.

Betty Radier, the chief executive officer of KTB said that the first bike race dubbed as ‘Arabuko Sokoke Forest Challenge with Tembea Kenya’ set for this weekend in coastal Kilifi county has been luring a large number of regional and international cyclists.

In a statement issued in Nairobi Radier asserted that Kenya is an ideal destination for biking safaris owing to the favorable weather throughout the year.

He went on to add that the outlying tourist attractions along the competition routes attract the spectator follows the riders. She said that the 64-km bike race in Kilifi would take place in the largest and most intact coastal forest in East Africa.

According to KTB, the Arabuko Sokoke forest has 20% of Kenya’s bird species, 30% of butterfly species and at least 24 rare and endemic bird, mammal and butterfly species. The race is also part of the campaigns geared towards conservation.

Radier feels that the sporting event offers a new and exciting experience especially for the young and middle-aged segment of the populace who increasingly seek an active lifestyle for leisure and for fitness.

She said that adventure tourism is fast-growing with millennials developing more interest in authentic experiences through travel.

Other biking challenges have been lined up for the months of June and July in Machakos in eastern Kenya and the Great Rift Valley.

Radier said KTB will continue to explore partnerships and collaboration with industry players in order to reap maximum benefit from the domestic segment.

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