Kamanga told Inside Travel that most banks in Kenya have started selling airline tickets. “Numerous banks throughout Kenya now have agreements with airlines and hotels and sell tickets and packages directly to the client, bypassing the travel agent,” he says.

“What’s more is that banks are now making it a lot easier for their customers to book travel through them by creating apps that facilitate airline bookings. Both Equity Bank and I&M Bank have rolled out such apps,” says Haider Kurby, Travel Supervisor of Vogue Tours & Travel.

Patrick Maina Kamanga and Haidar Kurby at Indaba 2018

To make matters worse, hotels and car services such as Uber, have also embarked upon selling airline tickets and travel packages to the client. Says Kamanga: “Hotels have forged agreements with airlines to offer the traveller package deals. If for example, the travel agent wants to book a room, the cost will be $100. However, if the traveller books a flight as well as a room directly with the hotel, the hotel rate will be $60.”

More regulation is needed, Kenyan travel agents urge

The main reason why anyone in Kenya can sell travel packages is that the industry is not regulated, according to Kamanga. He explains that when the travel industry becomes more regulated, the situation for travel agents will improve.

Nicanor Sabula, CEO of the Kenya Association of Travel Agents (KATA), doesn’t see the banks as a major threat to the travel agent in Kenya, because he says travel agents offer a very unique added value to any traveller.

Nicanor Sabula at Indaba 2018

However, Sabula agrees it is time to professionalise the industry. He says: “The travel industry remains largely unregulated with very weak laws that undermine professionalisation of the industry. We have people in the industry who shouldn’t be in it. The nett effect, unfortunately, is that they give the genuine players a bad name.”

Sabula explains that KATA is working very hard to distinguish agents that belong to the association from the rest. He says: “We are raising awareness among consumers of travel services on the need of dealing with KATA registered agents who have subscribed to a code of conduct.”

The initiative is successful, and Sabula says he is happy to report that many are seeing the value of what KATA is doing and they are now beginning to demand a KATA certificate from those seeking to provide them with services. He adds: “We are also pushing the government to enact some regulations that will ensure unscrupulous practitioners are pushed out of the industry.”

During a panel discussion, Sales: Domestic Tourism trends on the continent, Mmatšatši Ramawela, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa explained that travelling in our own continent is the one thing that will make Africa the tourism destination in the world. “After all, charity begins at home,” she said.

Domestic and regional tourism helped keep Zimbabwe’s and Kenya’s tourism industry strong

Tesa Chikaponya, Executive Director of the Zimbabwe National Convention Bureau, said that while Zimbabwe has gone through many tribulations, domestic tourism helped support the country during difficult times. “Nobody was coming to a country that was perceived to be at war. Domestic tourism helped us bridge the gap,” she said. “It’s crucial for locals to travel their own country and tell their story so that the world will realise we are not a dark continent anymore.”

Chikaponya explained that money is often an important barrier to domestic and regional travel. The key is to develop a culture of saving. “Travel is not only meant for the rich international traveller,” she said, adding that product owners can help make domestic travel more accessible by implementing initiatives such as low season events for the domestic market, or introduce payment plans such as ‘fly now, pay later’ or allow people to pay in instalments for their travels.

Also in Kenya, domestic travel has helped strengthen the travel and tourism industry. Nicanor Sabula, CEO of the Kenya Association of Travel Agents (KATA), told Inside Travel that domestic tourism in Kenya is growing at a rapid rate. According to Sabula, domestic tourism can give stability to a very erratic tourism industry on the continent as well as to the domestic tourism industry in Kenya. “Traditionally, we have relied heavily on Western tourism. However, as soon as the slightest incident happens, we see massive cancellations and business is lost.”

Sabula explains intra-African travel is key to the future of the tourism industry in Africa. He says: “Africans know their continent. When there is Ebola in Liberia, they won’t be afraid to travel to South Africa. We know the geography of our continent. The African travel industry will be stabilised by the growth of domestic tourism and intra-African tourism and travel.”

A different picture for South Africa and Nigeria

 Although industry players agree that domestic tourism is important for the development of South Africa, South African domestic tourism numbers have been down since 2015.

According to Lindiwe Mthethwa, African Sun Hotels as Sales Manager, the reality is that 32% of South Africans today are not able to afford to travel. “In our culture, we have not been educated about the importance of knowing our own country. The travel culture has still not been instilled, and most of us would rather save for other assets than for travel,” she said during a panel discussion at Indaba.

While selling domestic travel has historically never been a priority for South Africa’s travel agents, SA Tourism and ASATA joined forces in 2016 to find innovative ways to market to the domestic traveller. Research conducted by SA tourism showed that domestic travel could be a lucrative niche for the travel agent as out of 21.7 million South Africans over the age of 18 and earning a personal income, some 3.6 million adults would be targetable as holiday travellers.

Also in Nigeria, a lot still needs to be done to develop domestic travel. President of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Bankole Bernard, told Inside Travel that Nigeria needs a solid position on domestic tourism, however, the problem is that Nigeria currently doesn’t have a dedicated Minister for Tourism. Says Bankole: “The Minister of Tourism has several portfolios and is also the Minister of Information and the Minister of Culture.”

According to Bankole, to develop domestic tourism in Nigeria, the country needs to invest in tourism attractions and amenities. “The time has come for a private/public partnership to manage tourism sites in the country and make them productive,” he said.