Kenya gets connected - World Travel Market

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THE BLOGGER VIEW"Embrace social media"Njoroge Nguru (@njooro) is co-founder of eTravel Kenya inMombasa, which oversees e-marketing operations for various clients.He is also a part-time geek at www.kenyatweets.comvocal in creating awareness aboutpoaching and wildlife conservancy usingsocial media. Their focus onconservancy issues while still marketingstands out from the rest of the players.How long have you been bloggingabout tech and travel in Kenya?Seven years but only the last four ontech and travel. I got tired of bloggingjust for the traffic and decided to pick upniches that I could make money from.Travel was easy for me to choosebecause I like to travel and tourism isKenya's biggest earner. I blog about techto keep in touch with the changinglandscape: there is a lot of innovationgoing on in Kenya.How advanced is the Kenya travelindustry in using social media?Sadly, the travel industry lags behind.The major travel companies are almostnon-existent on Twitter and Facebookand only the small ones and startups arereally having a go at social media. Thismay be because the industry is stillcontrolled by the 'older folks'.Any examples of social media bestpractice in Kenya tourism?The Kenya Tourism Board used Twitteras part of its Tembea Kenya domestictourism campaign, creating the#tembeakenya hashtag for people touse to talk about their travels aroundKenya. A year on, people are still usingthe hashtag whenever they travel tovarious destinations in Kenya.Ol Pejeta (www.olpejetaconservancy.org) is one of the biggest rhinosanctuaries in Kenya and has been very8Is the growth of social media inKenya all via mobile, or is use oflaptops still growing?Most of the social media activity iscertainly via mobile, it explains whyKenyans on Twitter (#KOT) is such anactive group. The use of mobiles hasactually helped drive the sales of PCs asmost Kenyans are introduced to internetvia the phone and the next step for themis usually a netbook/laptop/PC.Is there much growth in appsdeveloped by Kenyans for Kenyans?There are apps for farmers, teachers,medics but none for travellers or thoseseeking information on Kenyandestinations. I think this is because localdemand remains low with most of thetourism money coming from Europe. Iexpect things to change as the Kenyanmiddle class grows.Any examples of good social mediause in the safari industry?Safari people are just not very good withsocial media. Uniglobe Kenya (www.uniglobeletsgotravel.com) has beenconsistent and one of the betterexamples for others to follow. They seemto have a lot of conversations with theirclients on social media.Any other thoughts or comments?Use of social media will grow as morepeople get online. The travel industry willbe forced to embrace social media as achannel in order to remain relevant. @
SAFARI LODGESOne lodge's social journeyThe most famous of the many lodges in Kenya, Governors is wellused to media exposure, having played host to several TV seriesincluding Big Cat Diary, Planet Earth Live and Safari Kitchen.Created in the Mara 40 years ago bysafari pioneer Aris Grammaticus,Governors has grown to become acollection of seven camps and lodges.He died last year and his eldest son,Dominic, is now managing director.But Aris’s daughter, Ariana, is in chargeof online activity for the camps, havingreturned to Kenya in 2007 after workingin travel in the UK.On taking stock, she relaunched thewebsite (governorscamp.com) thisyear, with Twitter and Facebook plug-inson the home page and links to YouTubeand blogs.But a paucity of recent content isexplained by the camps coming in tohigh season – the wildebeest migrationis on the move – and the birth of hersecond child in June.“It’s only me and one other on socialmedia – and he’s away for a month inCambodia,” she said in a call toGovernors recently.Like so many camps in Kenya,Governors' social media channels arestrong on images. They include shots ofa mother’s last cheetah cub (pictured)and a lion fight – each received morethan 100 likes on Facebook.The regular feed of news is welcomedby Governors’ clients, many of whompost photos and know the individualanimals concerned – the camps have astrong repeat business. “It is a way ofkeeping in touch with what is happeningin our camps,” says Ariana.But surprisingly, no Pinterest or videos– wildlife or otherwise – have beenloaded onto Governors’ YouTubechannel since October 2010. Arianaadds: “Clients don’t tend to upload themand it does take time for us – we aremostly looking after clients.”The time element is something socialmedia managers will sympathise with.Ariana runs four blogs, the main onecovering the Maasai Mara and others forlodges in the Rift Valley, Lake Victoriaand Rwanda.Postings have been sporadic since theBBC were last there, in May, but theblogs do address smaller fauna, such asbutterflies and birds, while a monthlygame report gives exhaustive detail ofgame and weather.Mapping is something Ariana isinterested in since one appearedrecently showing the migration(facebook.com/maasaimarakenya).While a static map, collated fromdifferent sources, the potential forshowing live data and images of thewildebeest is clearly attractive. “It is –but we have to be careful: you don’twant to take away the magic of being onsafari and discovering somethingunexpected.”Ariana is planning the company’s 40thanniversary in November. Is sheplanning to ask clients for their oldimages and video to incorporate into afilm, book or microsite, we ask?“It’s one of the ideas we’re kickingaround,” she says. “Some clients havebeen coming here for 40 years. They’vegot a lot of social media.” @9Photo: Governor's Camp Collection
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