Nairobi was recently voted Africa’s Leading Business Travel Destination at this year’s 26th Annual World Travel Award (WTA) held in Mauritius.
In addition, the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) was awarded Africa’s Leading Meetings and Conference destination
Nairobi beat seven other African cities namely, Accra (Ghana), Cairo (Egypt), Lagos (Nigeria) Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria all in South Africa, to emerge the winner.
This is the second time Nairobi has been named Africa’s Leading Meetings and Conference Destination having also won the award in 2016.
But what really makes Nairobi so special!
Last year, Nairobi was among six must-visit African cities chosen by the 47-year-old American monthly consumer travel magazine, Travel+Leisure.
Describing the Kenyan capital as East Africa’s hub and home of emergent design collections from across Africa, the magazine with a 16 million global audience said travellers seeking to explore the creative scene should visit the city in 2019.
This came after commissioning of daily Nairobi-New York flights.
“In October, Kenya Airways launched its first direct flight from New York City to Nairobi, making travel to East Africa a much easier proposition. Even if you plan to go on safari, it is worth spending time in Nairobi to explore the creative scene.
It lists various tourist attractions including wildlife sanctuaries, art studios, original art and a bead workshop where 340 women craft colourful beadworks and ceramics by hand.
Travel+Leisure was the second American magazine to vouch for Kenya after Global Traveller (GT) named Kenya as the world’s favourite tourism destination with Kenya Airways clinching the third position as Africa’s most loved airline.
Ready to fly with us on our maiden flights? Well, pack your bags Uganda; for we are heading to Nairobi.#FlyUgandaAirlines pic.twitter.com/xYG6vigNV6
— Uganda Airlines (@UG_Airlines) May 31, 2019
Home to thousands of Kenyan businesses and over 100 major international companies and organizations, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), Nairobi is an established hub for business and culture.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) is one of the largest in Africa and the second-oldest exchange on the continent.
It is Africa’s fourth-largest exchange in terms of trading volume, capable of making 10 million trades a day.
After the recent award, over the moon Nairobi governor Mike Sonko said,“this is great news not only for Nairobi, but Kenya as a whole. Our vision is to transform Nairobi into Africa’s economic power hub.”
He also promised to make Nairobi a city of choice in the African region.
It's with great honour to announce that Nairobi City County has been crowned Africa's leading business travel destination during the World @TravelAwards 2019 held last night in Mauritius. This is a clear indication that Nairobi City is becoming Africa's economic power hub. pic.twitter.com/lTMIYiJdmo
— Mike Sonko (@MikeSonko) June 2, 2019