Nairobi, May 1 (IANS): Kenya will use the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) to market its tourism products and create interest for travel into the country, its tourism body has said.

Kenya Tourism Board has allocated about $250,000 for the destination marketing and promotional campaigns in partnership with the Rising Pune Super giants (RPS), Xinhua news agency reported.

"We hope this association with one of the leading teams in IPL will drive consideration for Kenya as a preferred holiday destination," KTB CEO Betty Radier said in a statement on Sunday.

IPL is the most attended cricket league in the world and ranks sixth among all sports leagues.

KTB hopes to benefit from its global broadcast in over 15 countries in the league series that began in April and will run towards the end of May.

"We also expect to engage with approximately five million consumers through the social media engagements where Indian fans can win a holiday trip to Kenya," said Radier.

KTB will leverage the partnership with the team for all the brand promotions and activations in social media platforms until August 31.

India is currently Kenya's third largest tourist source market with KTB optimistic that engagement with cricket will help in propelling the country to achieve number one status in arrivals in next few years.

The arrival figures from India to Kenya for 2016 posted 64,116 visitors up from 49,756 in 2015, indicating a growth of 28.9 per cent.

Radier said that ease of aces to Kenya through Kenya Airways that flies twice daily from Mumbai to Nairobi among other airlines has contributed to the growth of numbers from the market.

The campaign was aimed at increasing Kenya's brand awareness and familiarity among cricket fans in India, given the popularity of the sport.

KTB expects to reach over 100 million fans through activations in all communication on offline and online platforms jointly undertaken by tour operators including Thomas Cook and Odyssey Travel.