The Ministry of Tourism has opened up offices in Russia, Middle East, Australia, and India as part of its source markets diversification programme.

In a three-minute live interview with the international news channel-the Cable Television Network (CNN) on Wednesday Tourism Minister Najib Balala said Kenya has put in place an aggressive programme to diversify her source markets.

"U.K. and America are among our traditional source markets, but we are diversifying now to Russia, Eastern Europe or Central Europe and also India, the Middle East and Africa, itself," the minister said during the interview.

The opening of the offices comes hot on the heels of the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) launch of a two Million USD European Union-funded advertising campaign on the CNN which began two weeks ago.

The advertisement which is part of global marketing campaign will run for six months and has been uploaded onto the CNN website with a minimum of 3 million visitors within the six months period.  

The minister assured tourists that Kenya is safe and the number of visitors was steadily rising. "We have made all the efforts to showcase Kenya as one of the most premiere exotic destinations in the world and we have invested, as a government, in marketing," added the minister

Kenya, he disclosed will host an investment conference next year where it will invite the branded chains of hotels to come and look at Africa, and also Kenya, in particular and explore areas of investment.

The minister says investors can take advantage of government's policy on regional diversification to tap on the existing potentiality in other areas identified as tourist attractions.