Sixty-Five-year-old Travel Management Company, Express Travel Group (ETG) has rebranded to Hemingways Travel.
Hemingways Group CEO Ross Evans said the rebrand and related investment is in response to emerging opportunities for growth and the need to enhance the travelers experience at a time when travel is experiencing unprecedented disruption and changes in needs.
To drive the new strategy, former Hemingways Group Finance Director, Joseph Kithitu, has been appointed the new Managing Director of Hemingways Travel.
Speaking during the rebrand announcement, Evans said, as part of the process, Hemingways Travel would expand its offering to the leisure market to the level it has become renowned for in the corporate travel market as well as leveraging its operations as a premium inbound destination management company.
“We remain very focused on delivering for our corporate travel clients and are now expanding our proposition to leisure travelers by offering a full suite of premium travel services and the valuable benefits of using an experienced travel agent, something that, we believe, has become more important as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic,” said Evans.
He noted that Hemingways Travel clients can now adapt to the changing demands of travel by taking advantage of new technologies that will enhance the traveler experience and offer complete peace of mind.
Tourism CS Najib Balala lauded the move noting that technology innovation and collaboration has enabled the tourism sector to ride the difficult Covid-19 period.
“Innovation, digitization and expansion to leisure travel is a sure win for Hemingways Travel and any other sector players looking to thrive in the tourism and travel sector as the industry continues to recover from the pandemic,” said CS Balala.
Latest statistics from the Ministry of Tourism indicate that the tourism industry has registered growth and contributed to a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 10.4 per cent and employed 990,000 people.
Despite being one of the hardest-hit industries in the wake of Covid-19, Kenya’s tourism earnings grew by 65.4 percent to Sh146.51billion in 2021 compared to Sh88.56billion in 2020.
According to Statista, the travel and tourism market is forecast to grow at an annual growth rate of 10.47% up to 2026.
Source: Capital FM Kenya.
