While Kenya is still the secondbiggest destination in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa, tourism here has been a roller-coaster over the past decade. Bad PR — from drought and grazing incursions in Laikipia to polling chaos at the elections — continues to batter its reputation, and there are currently no charter flights from the UK.
Dr Betty Radier, however, is relentlessly upbeat. Name-checked as one of only three movers and shakers in Kenya who truly ‘gets’ tourism, she happily accepts the compliment and ascribes it to her long background in advertising: “Tourism in Kenya is about marketing the destination. I’m not a government person, I break all the protocols. I need to build the equity of our brand.”
After university, Radier worked at Ogilvy & Mather and a series of other big ad agencies. She moved on to Microsoft and then Samsung to work in operations around Africa, where she began to appreciate the potential of what Kenya had to offer. She moved back into advertising before the government came calling.