According to Jumia Travel’s Hospitality Industry Report Kenya 2016/ 2017, the website received 59% of traffic compared to the 37% traffic from its mobile apps and a meager 4% logging to the travel platform through tablets.
The trajectory is almost duplicated when it comes to placing actual bookings; 70% of visitors book via computers while the remaining 30% click on their smartphones. when Interestingly, and perhaps contrary to conventional belief, there are more men visiting the website at 60% in comparison to women who take up 40%.
“The findings are compiled from data gathered from the 2000 plus Kenyan hotels partnering with Jumia Travel, showing not only an increase in the absorption of technology in the sector, but also remarkable growth in domestic travel spending’ Remarked Cyrus Onyiego, during the launch. The research shows Kenyans still prefer the good old laptop when it comes to hotel searches,
The annual report also shows that 52% of guests still opt for pay-at-hotel, a notable increase from the 47% recorded in the premier report(2015). Mpesa, as the major mobile money transfer platform takes up 32% of overall hotel payments, while 15% of the local domestic travel consumers pay via card.
Estelle Verdier, the Managing Director for Jumia Travel-East & Southern Africa attributes this shift to the growing number of properties now enjoying online, thus global presence, “Through the last 3 years we have developed a unique solution for hotel managers to gain online visibility even when they are not connected to internet, by virtue of joining our platform, this enables them to get bookings which are actualized through our customer service team and travel advisors”
Full report here
The report also captures expert insights from Carmen Nibigira, the Chief operations Officer at East Africa Tourism
The report further discusses the place of Travel and Tourism on the global economic, social and cultural map, noting that the 1 billion economy recently hit 1.3 billion international arrivals, and continues to exhibit growth, even when faced by multiple challenges. According to the UNWTO, tourism contributes 10% of the global GDP, while accounting for 1/10 jobs. These figures were well portrayed locally, with the sector taking up 1/11 jobs and contributing to 10% of Kenya’s GDP(2015)
