Revival of tourism industry could take longer than expected

It is four days now since the United Kingdom announced to its nationals that Mombasa and Kilifi counties are now safe for travel.

The impact of the travel warning it issued in April last year has seen the tourism business tumble to unprecedented lows, particularly at the coast.

The grim reality though is that the fortunes of the tourism industry are not likely to improve overnight.

In the last one year, 23 hotels along Kenya’s coast have been forced to close business, sending at least 40 thousand Kenyans into joblessness.

For curio dealers like Chris Katuku, there’s little to do here other than to dust off his wares.

It’s been very tough because of the poor business, some have been forced to go upcountry.”

But hope now abounds following the UK’s decision to lift its travel advisory against Mombasa and Kilifi counties.

But not all of Kenya’s 500 kilometres of pristine beach coastline has been declared safe yet for UK nationals.

“An advisory does remain in place for the northern part of the Coast, that is Lamu down to Malindi and the North East border with Somalia, but I always say nearly all visits to Kenya are trouble free and there’s no reason why I would not want visitors to come to the areas that are not included.”

Although the UK government’s revision of its travel warning has been widely welcomed as a much needed boost to the ailing tourism sector, hotel and tour operators say it may take at least two years for the tourism industry to recover the gains it has lost in just one year.

We’re still aware of the fact that 2016 is a gone year and 2017 is an electioneering year.  In history, it has been difficult selling Kenya as a tourism destination over an electioneering period,” said Sam Ikwaye – Executive Officer, Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers.

And this is especially considering that travel bookings are usually made at least one year in advance.

“Decisions were just not being taken for Kenya. We need now to go out and start pushing for those decisions. And that’s why we need a serious sales and marketing blitz out in the source markets.”

“And the source markets would be the UK, France, US, Germany, Australia and locally, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. So we need to start pushing for those bookings to come out.” Said Mike Macharia, CEO Kenya association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers.

The good news is that some key European carriers like Germany’s Lufthansa are already warming up to Kenya.

Lufthansa has announced that it will operate four flights a week to Nairobi from Frankfurt, Germany, beginning 27th October this year.

News of the possibility of direct flights between Kenya and the United States is also being eagerly awaited.

But that largely depends on how Kenya handles security within its borders and whether its key tourist markets will call a happier tune for Kenya\’s tourism industry.

Stephen Kimani

Tags:

kenya africa Mombasa tourism lamu business United Kingdom Kilifi

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