| dc.description.abstract | The conventions, meetings and exhibitions industry is rapidly emerging as one of the important
sectors that acts as a facilitator to the international trade and also as an avenue of transferring
knowledge from the developed world to the developing world. In addition, the international
meetings, conferences and exhibitions have been touted as an effective way to contact current
and potential customers at a lower cost than alternative international sales calls or adaptations of
advertising campaigns to meet the needs of multiple markets. As a result, the research objective
was to establish the role of conferences, meetings and exhibitions in fostering international trade
in the Ministry of East Africa Affairs Commerce and Tourism, Kenya. The study adopted a case
study research design in which five interviewees, namely principal economist, assistant director,
deputy as well as the director economic affairs were interviewed. The findings from the research
were that conferencing, meetings and exhibitions play an important role in the Kenyan
international trade activities in the sense that it has become an important point in which local and
international players with global reach meet and acts as a platform to advertisement and a
meeting where information is exchanged. Exhibitions and conferences have also become an
avenue to transfer technical know-how between the developed and the developing world and also
enable the local manufacturers to appreciate the dynamic nature of market environment and
capture favorable market opportunities that exist. The challenge that hinders more Kenyan
players to participate in the international meetings conferences and exhibitions was found to be
the high cost involved and a lack of adequate publicity made on the activity. Consequently, it
was recommended that efforts need to be put to allow for greater investment in the national use
of conferencing and exhibition strategies to reach the potential investors in the country as well as
facilitate the transfer of technical know – how to the local business people. It is also critical for
Kenya to improve its international direct air access if it has the intention to increase international
participation in its MCE events in the country. Kenya also needs to do more to work on its
qualified workforce shortage and labor woes to ensure that service quality does not deteriorate.
Future research should explore comparing the attractiveness of MCE destinations from meeting
attendees’ perspectives as well establish the effect of the conference, meetings and exhibitions on
the local communities after the meetings. | en_US |
