CNN WORMS ITS WAY BACK INTO PR DEAL WITH KENYA
(Posted 23rd September 2015)
Reactions came in thick and fast yesterday after it became known across Kenya’s tourism circles that the CNN PR deal has been reinstated and not one comment was complimentary. There is speculation that the global news ‘Hotbed of Errors’ had refused to refund any payments already made in advance by Kenya and was considering taking the matter to court to hang on to the deal by all means, inspite of having made catastrophically false allegations about Kenya ahead of the Obama visit a few months ago.
A major hashtag #SomeoneTellCNN campaign swiftly went underway at the time, eventually causing the station to pull the misleading statements and prompting a Senior Vice President to fly to Nairobi and delivery some form of apology to President Kenyatta, clearly aimed at rescuing the revenue.
Much of the anger is again directed against Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie, who cited the lukewarm apology as reason enough to reinstate the million Dollar deal yesterday when making the announcement at the launch of the new ‘Make it Kenya’ branding initiative.
PR firm Grayling too incurred some less than favourable comments when a statement emerged in public from them that Kenya needed to see such campaigns through to a complete conclusion, immediately interpreted as seeking to capture a long term contract with the country even though significant sections of the tourism private sector remain opposed to their appointment, leave alone a future renewal of their deal.
In contrast was the new ‘Make it Kenya’ campaign broadly welcomed and hailed as a step into the right direction to give the embattled country a fresh image in key tourism source markets. Over the past two years had Kenya’s tourism industry seen significant setbacks and a significant fall in arrival numbers, a trend which however bottomed out by mid of this year, aided by the softening of the language of the UK’s anti travel advisories and lifting of the blanket travel ban for the almost entire coast line.
The upcoming Magical Kenya Travel Expo, this year held in Diani at the Kenyan coast, has already attracted over 170 confirmed buyers for the event and with media fam trips lined up for some of the most important travel and tourism publications is the country literally guaranteed a wave of positive publicity ahead and after MKTE has taken place. In November then is the Africa Travel Association returning to Nairobi for its 40th anniversary annual congress, again having major travel media organization in their tow, just two weeks before Pope Francis is set to visit Kenya. This is the second high profile visit of the year after President Obama’s trip in July and will no doubt generate global attention and exposure for Kenya, unless CNN feels prompted to once again step out of line and produce another faux pas on live TV.
Watch this space for breaking and regular news from across the Eastern African region in all matters concerning travel and tourism.
