Nairobi 2025: Fact Sheet – Houston Travel Marketing Services

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Nairobi is always our busiest travel trade expo – our July 2024 Expo attracted 283 trade from 205 Kenyan companies including the 14 Mombasa-based KATA travel agencies hosted by Houston Travel Marketing Services.

We have moved the Nairobi TravelExpo dates from our usual July dates to the end of May. July is usually Kenya’s high season for safaris which impacted the attendance at Spotlight by many of the major DMCs.

For the July 2025 TravelExpo we have again decided to use just one venue Sarova Panafric instead of moving from one hotel to the next and battling the Nairobi traffic.

We are again expecting 35 – 40 exhibitors from all corners of Africa.

This Spotlight TravelExpo will be a Spotlight on Everywhere – outbound overseas travel, regional tourism within Africa & domestic tourism in Kenya.

Spotlight TravelExpo Nairobi is supported by

Why exhibit at Spotlight Nairobi?

Kenya is probably the third largest Outbound market in Sub-sahara Africa (after Nigeria & South Africa).
Kenya is a gateway to East Africa with over 135 million people, and for the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) market with over 450 million people.
Nairobi is ranked fifth in terms of numbers of USD millionaires in Africa with over 5,000 individuals worth at least one million dollars (report published by New World Wealth/Henley & Partners)
There are a further 3,500 high-net-worth Kenyans in other cities in Kenya.
The average income per person In Kenya is USD2,000
Kenya is a prime market for South Africa with 44,000 arrivals in 2023
Kenya Airways now offers 21 flights a week to JNB and a daily flight to CPT, and also offers flights to many Southern African cities including Lusaka, Victoria Falls, Livingstone, Harare and Maputo
Airlink offers daily flights to Nairobi
Kenyans no longer require visas to visit South Africa
The expatriate and diplomatic communities, and the United Nations agencies headquartered in Nairobi represent a major business and leisure travel market opportunity with the added potential of significant conference business.
Other important Kenyan outbound market segments include shopping, medical tourism, sports groups and buyers attending trade exhibitions

Who Should Exhibit:

Kenyan, Zanzibar & Indian Ocean resorts
African hotel groups interested in tapping the Kenya business travel market
East African safari lodges
Nairobi-based hotels seeking group & conference business from Nairobi travel agents and DMC’s
Tourism boards and inbound DMC’s promoting outbound travel from Kenya to their destinations
Regional & international airlines
Other tourism suppliers

Expected attendance:

Due to the high number of attendees at our Nairobi TravelExpos we will be holding TWO full-day sessions in Nairobi on Wednesday, 28 May & Thursday, 29 May (6 hour per session)

Total expected attendance 250 – 300
(two different groups of 100 – 150 each day)

Who Will Attend the TravelExpos:

Kenyan corporate and leisure travel agents
Outbound tour operators
East African regional tour operators
Conference organisers
Corporate travel planners from major corporate accounts
Government departments, NGO’s and UN agencies (Nairobi is the Africa HQ for the UNO).

How will TravelExpo attendance be promoted?

The Spotlight TravelExpo will be extensively advertised to the travel trade in Kenya by e-mail broadcasts.
We will also encourage travel agents to invite their corporate accounts to attend the TravelExpo with them.
Our hotel and airline partners will distribute invitations to their key corporate accounts and conference organizers.
We have appointed a well-known Nairobi-based events company to distribute the invitations, handle the registrations and to chase up the replies.
Both the Kenya Association of Travel Agents (KATA) and KATO (Kenya Association of Tour Operators) support Spotlight and send out invites to their members.

TravelExpo format

The TravelExpo will be a FREE-FLOW table-top format with approximately 40 tables.

Programme

Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Arrive Nairobi
Day free for sales calls in Nairobi.
18h30 – 20h30: VIP Cocktail party for major travel agencies & tour operators in association with KATA and KATO at Sarova Panafic

We suggest you overnight at Sarova Panafric – the venue for the Spotlight session on 17 & 18 July. See accommodation rates below.

Wednesday, 28 May 2025

07h30: Exhibitors to set-up tables
08h30: Trade registration
09h00 – 12h00: TravelExpo session
12h00: Prize draw
12h30 – 13h30: Finger lunch for attendees and exhibitors
13h30 – 16h30: TravelExpo session
16h30: End of TravelExpo session

Thursday 29 May 2025

08h30: Trade registration
09h00 – 12h00: TravelExpo session
12h00: Prize draw
12h30 – 13h30: Finger lunch for attendees and exhibitors
13h30 – 16h30: TravelExpo session
16h30: End of TravelExpo session

TravelExpo cost (excluding VAT for South African companies)

USD1,850 / ZAR35,500

Cost includes:

All TravelExpo expenses & promotional costs
Two morning coffee breaks, two finger lunches and one cocktail party including snacks & drinks
50-word description and logo in official catalogue distributed to all attendees
Full contact address list of all attendees will be sent to exhibitors after the TravelExpo
A maximum of two staff per table. An additional cost of USD30 / ZAR550 per person will be charged for additional staff to cover catering costs

Sponsorship opportunities

Full-page advert in the exhibitor directory: USD150 / ZAR2850
Coffee & tea during registration plus video screened during TravelExpo: USD500 / ZAR9,000 per day
Cocktail party Gold Sponsor plus video screened during TravelExpo: USD1,500 / ZAR28,500
Soft drinks during one lunch: USD350 / ZAR6,500
Soft drinks during both lunches: USD700 / ZAR13,000
Logo printed on 400 visitor badges: USD200/ZAR3,600

BUT HURRY!!

We are likely to be fully-booked very quickly, so please send your booking form as soon as possible. The venue can only accommodate a maximum of 40 Tables!

To ensure an even spread of exhibitors from all regions of Africa we will have to limit the number of exhibitors per country.

Accommodation at Sarova Panafric

Single B&B, per person, per night:

Panafric Room: USD130
Deluxe Room: USD150
Panafric Executive Room: USD170

Twin/Double B&B, per room, per night

Panafric Room: USD145
Deluxe Room: USD170
Panafric Executive Room: USD195

Book by email to centralreservations@sarovahotels.com,
and cc Judy Kahuki: Judy.Kahuki@sarovahotels.com Reference: Spotlight Panafric

Visas

South Africans require on-line eVisas for Kenya (no cost). Most other Nationalities require eVisas for Kenya. Yellow fever inoculation certificates are sometimes required.