2018 Kata Convention: Travel Agents Innovation Forum And Annual General Meeting
Monday, 10 September 2018. The Kenya Association of Travel Agents (KATA) held its first ever Annual Convention that combines the Association’s 2nd Travel Agents Innovation forum and the 39th Annual General Meeting from 7th to 8th September 2018 at Enashipai Resort & Spa- Naivasha. This year’s event was sponsored by Kenya Airways, Travelport Kenya, Finserve Africa Limited, Amadeus East Africa, Kenya Tourism Board and Sanlam Life Insurance Limited. Kenya’s Permanent Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife Joe Okudo, officially opened the 2018 KATA and delivered the keynote address on behalf of the Cabinet Secretary, Najib Balala. The Chairman KATA Mohammed Wanyoike Speaking at the 2018 KATA Convention mentioned the main objective to holding this convention is to provide a platform to discussing emerging technologies and innovations in travel and tourism.
KATA’S CEO Nicanor Sabula was keen to mention of innovations, changing technology and landscape of Global Air Travel. “The travel and hospitality industry is perhaps the industry that has been mostly disrupted by the ever changing technological advancement. From the emergence of online self-booking portals such as Booking.com; to shared economies like Airbnb, Uber; to Artificial Intelligence and robotics; and now to the buzzword Block chain technology, disruption in the industry is coming fast and furious. The only way to survive the onslaught is to be creative, innovate and change. This not only calls for change at the individual business level but collectively as an industry at the national level.” Nicanor Sabula, CEO KATA.
The Ministry of Tourism and wildlife in relation to this commissioned the development and recently launched the National Tourism Blueprint 2030- a 10 strategy that will ensure Kenya’s tourism industry remains competitive and grows. The blueprint focusses on four key strategies namely; The Product strategy, Marketing Strategy, Infrastructure Strategy and the Investment Strategy. Betty Radier CEO Kenya Tourism Board, talking about, The Place of Travel Agents in the National Tourism Blueprint 2030, gave a good insight into the travel industry in regards to moving trends in technology not forgetting the human touch which is still important. Changes that are happening in air transport are likely to shape the future of travel. Some of them include the emergence of low cost carriers, changing distribution patterns, demographics changes of travellers and other key trends and patterns. It is a race towards improving operational efficiencies and meeting the ever growing customers’ demands. The forum discusses the latest technologies and inventions driving the travel industry and explores how travel companies can adopt the technologies to become competitive. It delves in to the world of Mobile, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Block chain.
In October 2018, Kenya Airways will commence direct flights between Nairobi and the US city of New York City. This is the most anticipated event in the travel industry not only in Kenya but also across the region. The Managing Director & CEO of Kenya Airways, Sebastian Mikosz, discussed on positioning Kenya andTravel Agents in the direct flights from Kenya to New York City to reap big from this historical venture
Click Here To View KATA Day 1
Click Here To View KATA Day 2
About KATA
Kenya Association of Travel Agents (KATA) is a membership based organization that represents the interests of Travel and Travel Industry Related Businesses and Tour Operators in Kenya. It works to enhance and improve the climate for tourism in Kenya by promoting the services of Travel Agents to the general public, protecting their rights and assisting businesses to optimize and improve profitability.
Sponsor’s Profile
Kenya Airways
Kenya Airways, a member of the Sky Team Alliance, is a leading African airline flying to 51 destinations worldwide, 43 of which are in Africa and carries over three million passengers annually. It continues to modernize its fleet with its 32 aircrafts being some of the youngest in Africa. This includes its flagship B787 Dreamliner aircrafts. The on-board service is renowned and the lie-flat business class seat on the wide-body aircraft is consistently voted among the world’s top 10. Kenya Airways takes pride for being in the forefront of connecting Africa to the World and the World to Africa through its hub at the new ultra -modern Terminal 1A at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. Kenya Airways celebrated 40 years of operations in January 2017 and was named Africa Leading Airline 2017 by the World Travel Awards.
Travelport
Travelport is a recognized, proven, industry leader with the products and solutions it offers today covering all aspects of the travel supply chain from airline merchandising, hotel content and distribution, mobile commerce to B2B payments. Travelport is committed to building leading technology that makes the experience of buying and managing travel continually better. Through travel commerce platform Travelport provides distribution, technology, payment and other solutions for the $7 trillion global travel and tourism industry.
Travelport platform facilitates travel commerce by connecting the world’s leading travel providers with online and offline travel buyers in a proprietary (B2B) travel marketplace.
Amadeus
Set-up in July 2003, Amadeus East Africa is a wholly owned Amadeus Commercial Organization company that covers Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti & Southern Sudan. Amadeus aspiration is captured in three words, to be: Brighter, Bolder, Better. Amadeus has an impact at every step of the travel chain, with people, working and interacting with each other and with customers supporting their business goals both locally and across the world.
Finserve Africa
Finserve Limited is the fintech subsidiary of Equity Group established to inspire and prosper people and businesses by connecting today’s potential with tomorrow’s innovative opportunities. Finserve addresses complex financial and lifestyle obstacles by employing a data and insight driven culture to build products that enrich customer experience.
Finserve has distinguished itself as an innovator with futuristic solutions that will contribute to the ease of doing business in Africa.
Saham Assurance
Saham Assurance Company Kenya Limited (formerly known as Mercantile Insurance Company Limited) was established in the year 1993 as a composite insurance company. The company has a share capital of Ksh.450million, which has been fully paid up. Total assets of the company are over Ksh.2billion. A-Rating (by Global Credit Rating denoting our strong claims paying ability nationally. During 2012, the company decided to make a strategic partnership with Saham Group who acquired majority stake in Mercantile Insurance through its subsidiary Colina Holdings.
In view to have common brand across Pan Africa, the company was rebranded as Saham Assurance Company Kenya Limited.
Kenya Tourism Board
Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) was established in 1997 through the legal notice no.14 under the state Corporations Act (Cap 446) of the laws of Kenya. Kenya Tourism Board`s commitment is to provide quality and efficient service to its customers and stakeholders. KTB highlights its role in positioning Kenya as an outstanding tourist destination. Kenya Tourism Board’s mandate is to develop, implement and co-ordinate a National Tourism marketing strategy. Some of the core functions of Kenya Tourism Board is to provide leadership and offer strategic direction to both the government and the tourism private sector in matters regarding destination marketing, to monitor the quality and standards of facilities available to both local and international tourists and advice the private sector and government agencies on how to improve the facilities for various target markets and Work in partnership with national, regional and international organizations as well as local authorities in the country to improve the tourism environment.
