Tourism is essential to the region’s economic prosperity. According to the EAC Tourism Marketing Strategy, its contribution to GDP ranges between 5.1% and 17.1%. It is key for job creation, boosting economic activities, infrastructural development, cultural/ exchange, among others. Upon the onset of the pandemic, EAC Partner States lost 92% revenues in the Tourism Sector and the tourist arrivals to the region fell by approximately 4.73 million arrivals as in 2020 compared to 2019. To reduce the spread of COVID-19 among visitors, plus the threat of transmission to wildlife, most of the tourism areas were closed to visitors across the world. In addition, the government COVID-19 protocols, though meant to curb the spread of the pandemic, generally brought unplanned expenditures on the tourism and hospitality businesses, for example, partial and total lockdowns, mandatory PCR (COVID-19) testing for travelers to Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, and mandatory quarantine. This contributed to a reduction in the number of visitor’s especially international tourists. Much as business confidence is returning to the pre-COVID levels, consumer confidence is still down and with the unpredictable nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is need for strategies to boost domestic and regional tourism. Domestic tourism is envisaged to soften the blow suffered by tourism in the EAC. Though not comparable to international tourism, this market segment was and continues to be a promising and sustainable solution for the tourism sector amidst shocks of this nature. However, the low level of awareness by EAC citizens of tourism experiences together, with the narrow-range of tourism products targeting the domestic markets has resulted in low exploitation of this segment. The EAC in collaboration with the East African Tourism Platform (EATP) is undertaking a campaign, “TEMBEA NYUMBANI” to raise the awareness of EAC Partner States’ citizens about the offers of domestic and regional tourism. This is supported by the joint EAC-GIZ SEAMPEC programme, steered by the EAC Secretariat and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The regional tourism apex body, EATP and the tourism Boards of the respective Partner States play an important role in the success of this campaign. Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) has been supporting various programmes that are being undertaken by EATP including this campaign. The one- month media campaign, launched on 24th November 2021 will utilise various local and regional media (radio, television, newspaper and social media) to increase awareness of the available tourism products to increase visitations to key tourist sites and consumption of tourism services by domestic and regional markets. The campaign will help to boost and sustain tourism businesses within the region and restore confidence for EAC citizens to explore the region’s rich, iconic and fascinating tourist attractions ranging from scenic views, wildlife species, landscape and vast adventure activities.
