Kenya Bitter Truth

Online booking sites are becoming the norm rather than the exception. With the internet of things spiraling to every last aspect of living; getting your vacation stay has become a one step find on the right click. Companies such as Expedia, Jumia Travel, Trip Advisor and a myriad others, big, medium or emerging are becoming the go-to for any savvy traveler. However, like any other invention, OTAs come with their special challenges. Here is a short list of factors and tips you need to look out for when choosing your OTA. #1 Speed of Communication Automated responses, robotic recordings and eternally engaged ‘direct’ lines are some of the things that can drive anyone crazy while trying to reach any travel agent. Unanswered calls and messages, mails that no one seems to notice as well as agents who appear in a rush when explaining their products/services should be marked red on your list of reliable OTAs. #2 A Listening, Diverse Partner It’s not uncommon to find out that your favorite hot...

An artistic impression of the Isiolo International Airport. Construction of the proposed resort cities in Isiolo and Lake Turkana region has finally been given the green light after the Government allocated land for the two Vision 2030 flagship projects. These resort cities are expected to boost the economy of Northern Kenya and make the region a preferred tourist destination. According the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET) CEO, Mr Silvester Kasuku, 2,600 hectares of land at Kipsing Gap have been set aside for the Isiolo city, while in Turkana land has been identified at Elliye Springs for the resort. The two cities are envisaged under the Lamu Port South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor (LAPSSET). Mr Kasuku said the resort cities will have five-star hotel facilities, national parks, golf-courses, leisure parks theatres and amusement parks. He further explained that the resort cities will boost business in the respective regions and Kenya at large. They will ...

China is known to have a very aggressive Olympic sports development program, but with hundreds of thousands of young prospective athletes trained for many years to develop, only a few make the cut. Those who fail to stand out are discarded from the program and are left to fend for themselves after years of sacrifice. Plucked from schools as young as four years old, the children are denied a normal education and are subjected to hours of grueling training daily. At the age of 12, Zhang Shangwu was selected to train for a spot on the national Olympic team. Through hard work, the boy from northern China’s Hebei Province would later become a brilliant gymnast at the age of 18, winning two gold medals at the 2001 Beijing Summer Universiade. His success gained him some short-lived fame, with local sites calling him a “rising star” of the sport, according to the Epoch Times. An unfortunate accident during training the following year, however, left Zhang with a torn Achilles tendon. His injury...

When you don’t live within your means, you will find yourself in debts, stagnation, and you wouldn’t make any significant growth as a person. Living within your means would set you on course to planning your life better and achieving set goals. How can you live within your means? 1. HAVE A BUDGET Have a budget, have a plan of how you spend your income. Don’t just spend money — plan how you spend. Create a list of your expenses for each week or month, depending on how you earn and have a plan on how much that should be allocated for each. 2. TALLY IT WITH YOUR INCOME Let your budget don’t be ambiguous; it should tally with your income. The aim of the budget is to keep you on track on how to spend your money. 3. STICK TO THE PLAN The problem with many isn’t really that they don’t plan their money. It’s that they don’t stick to the plan. Don’t just have a plan for nothing; try to live accordingly. 4. KEEP RECORDS Keep records of your expenses to know where your money is going. Keeping rec...

" alt="jumia1banner.jpg" /> Leading pan African e-commerce Jumia announced yesterday the launch of JumiaPay, a third party online payment solution aimed at providing a safer, faster and more convenient online payment experience. The online payment solution JumiaPay is a first for e-commerce Jumia and will most certainly be decisive in facilitating online payments across the 23 African countries where it operates, encouraging the progressive change to cashless societies. If the majority of payments performed on Jumia’s platforms is cash on delivery (between 70 to 90%), JumiaPay comes as a major milestone for improving customers’ online experience for the coming months and years, following in the footsteps of Chinese e-commerce Alibaba and its online payment platform AliPay. Jeremy Hodara, coCEO of Jumia, emphasized the value added of the new payment platform for the online customer: “Jumia Pay has a very simple yet crucial objective: go even further in providing a safe...

The Jumia Travel Report on domestic tourism in Kenya saw the launch of the first in depth report on key trends, as well as a panel discussion with players in the hotel sector. The online booking website, which recently re-branded from “Jovago” has analyzed booking trends on it’s website for the period between 2015/2016, generated by hundreds of travelers on the platform. The report contains a number of observations and recommendations touching on key areas such as type of travelers, purpose of travel and adoption of technology in the local sub-sector. Addressing the media during the launch of the report, Cyrus Onyiego, the Country Manager for jumia travel l cited lack of awareness and knowledge as a major challenge hampering growth in domestic tourism, “travel is still viewed as a luxurious affair, simply because the (consumer) has very little knowledge on the product.” He called on stakeholders to come up with customized and personalized products for the market, keeping in mind the cu...

A young writer pounds away at a beat up old typewriter crammed tightly in his laundry room. The year is 1973. He works three jobs – one as a full time teacher, and the others in the summer doing industrial laundry and pumping gas. These jobs, along with his wife’s, barely keep his family – a toddler and a newborn – off of welfare. For most people, finding time to write would be the last thing on the priority list. Especially with a stack of rejection letters as fat as this writer’s. Still, he believed you should never give up your dreams, and apparently, so did his wife. There were several opportunities for them to give up. Like the time he was offered a small side job, one that paid $300 a year, but would eat up all his time to write. Though it was tempting, he declined. Or the time his wife found the beginnings of a story he had thrown in the trash, out of sheer disgust. She pulled it out convinced he had something, and encouraged him to continue working on it. . . What Can Happen Wh...