From ANA Travel Editor, Niels Bartels in Nairobi
From 2nd– 4th October 2024 the 14thedition of Magical Kenya Travel Expo (MKTE) took place at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi. It was a platform for B2B meetings between leading African products and top-producing global buyers. It was a good opportunity for the exhibitors to generate new business and to interact with international trade. The event attracted more than 5,000 delegates who could as well participate in seminars and market presentations in order to gain valuable information about the newest trends.
AfricaNewsAnalysis’ Travel Editor, Niels Bartels, was on site and spoke with some exhibibitors about their marketing strategy and whether they were happy with the outcome of the event.
One of the exhibitors was Kenya Airways (KQ). During day 1 of the event, the president of Kenya, His Excellency William Ruto visited their stand. The airline received the Platinum Award at the Magical Kenya Travel Expo 2024 for their commitment in driving tourism and elevating Kenya’s global presence.
We interviewed Cecilia Sagini who is the Brand Executive at Kenya Airways for three years.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: Which new products did you launch during Magical Kenya ?
Cecilia Sagini: We already have certain products running. However, the latest that has come up is KQ holidays. It’s a holiday package. We used to have it in the past, but then it went out. We stored it. We have now come back.We get for you the hotel booking as well as a flight. Furthermore we are pushing Asante rewards. That’s our loyalty program. Before we had „Flying blue“ Now we have transferred a lot of customers that we had on Flying Blue into Asante Rewards. We are now dealing with our loyalty program on our own. We are really now focusing on giving the best of the best to our clients.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: Who are you targeting during this event?
Cecilia Sagini: We have a wide range of people. There’s the exhibitors themselves. When it comes to B2B we have the buyers. Regarding B2C we have people who are booking tickets, changing tickets or they just want to understand some information. Some people want to further partnership deals. There are also people who want to invite us to other expos. There might be other events coming up and it might be lucrative for Kenya Airways to participate in them. These people are inviting us, giving us an opportunity to have visibility of our brand. There has been good visibility and good interaction, there’s been good meetings. I think it has been very viable. One of the key things we are doing (you will see it displayed over there) is our meal. Our meal setting is what we are trying to show, what you get in flight when it comes to both economy and business class. It’s almost bringing your client into your world and into the in flight experience while at the expo. We were able to show it to the business owners, the tour companies, if you are passengers or your clients with Kenya Airways, this is what you will get.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: Which other markets besides East Africa are important for you ?
Cecilia Sagini: The whole of Africa also. We fly to about 13 plus destinations within Africa. It’s connecting Africa to the world and the world to Africa. We are big and huge about that.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: Which key marketing strategies have you recently implemented?
Cecilia Sagini: This is a strategy and a tactic in itself: being able to be visible in the right places at the right time and connecting with the right individuals. The partnerships are very key for us. Being able to maximise “What are you having/What do I have“. Those are the things we are looking at. Other than that we have done a campaign together with South Africa Tourism to give us more visibility there and to show the possibilities to fly with Kenya Airways to your African destination.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: How do you measure the success of such campaigns?
Cecilia Sagini: We look at the arrivals and the flights out. Who has moved where and from where to where ? Did the travel start to happen? Even if there’s only a small spike up of travel, we will know and look at it and then know whether it was a successful campaign.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: What measures do you have to reward customer loyalty ?
Cecilia Sagini: We want to show them that we value them. We want to show them that we are excited that they fly with Kenya Airways. We want to give them something more. We want to give them a certain percentage discount when they fly with us, we want to give them access to our lounge when they fly with us. Asante Rewards, our loyalty programme, gives them that. We reward our frequent flyers. We keep giving them value at the end of the day.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: Thank you for the interview