Culinary tourism has been unveiled in Nairobi as the country strives to market Kenya as a prime destination for tourists.
Speaking during the inauguration of Chefs Delight Award at Nairobi National Museum MD of the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) Mr Muriithi lauded the award scheme terming it ‘an ideal platform’ for promoting culinary tourism in the country.
“Chef’s Delight Awards is an ideal platform for recognizing and rewarding culinary artists with their signature dishes and also celebrating the vibrancy of dining options at our restaurants. This is a welcome move at this time when the country is strategizing on different ways of diversifying the products available for the tourist,” said Muriithi.
Leisure & Travel Guides CEO Mansoor Jiwani, a key figure in the award scheme said: “Dining is a routine among tourists with food ranking alongside climate, accommodation and scenery in terms of importance to the traveler regardless of his or her origin.”
Popularly known as food tourism, culinary tourism refers to experiencing the food of a certain country while on travel which is a crucial niche in diversifying tourism products in the country.
“The reward scheme will see nominated restaurants, bars and chefs compete against each other establishments within the same cuisine category,” said Ms Maggie Ireri, Ipsos Synovate MD.
Ipsos Synovate is in charge with the mandate of conducting research and coming up with analyzed data based on the raw data they collect from different restaurants and hotels. Besides Ipsos Synovate, Chefs Delight Awards has partnered with RSM Ashvir, an accounting firm which will be auditing and verifying the votes cast in the process.
With 2012 January- March quarter registering a 0.5% decline compared to last year’s quarter during which the ministry recorded 313,691 visitors and this year the number was 312, 256 visitors, culinary tourism is expected to boost the number before the release of results in the subsequent quarters.
The programme will run for the next six months culminating with an awards gala evening that will recognize the best restaurant.
