Advisories hit Kenya tourism

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenya is facing one of its toughest challenges in the tourism sector following a myriad of travel advisories slapped on the Kenya by key destinations.

The already limping sector now has to content with fresh travel bans announced last week by the United Kingdom, United States of America, Germany and Canada. These are the main source markets for Kenya’s tourism and it is feared that the developments could dent a serious blow to the local economy.

“We would like to warn our nationals that any non-essential travel to the said areas is discouraged due to an impending likelihood of terrorism activities,” reads one of the advisories in part.

A sustained spate of terrorism attacks on Kenya particularly in Nairobi, the tourism bedrock of Mombasa and areas bordering Somalia have seen the western nations move to enforce the travel advisories.

Just last week, the UK government evacuated it nationals holidaying in Mombasa and put them on chartered flights back home, cancelling some of the stays running into weeks. Close to 500 tourists left on the chartered flights.

Mombasa which hosts like 80 per cent of Kenya’s tourism activity has suffered a number of grenade attacks at various locations. Several people have died and hundreds maimed during these attacks. The Kenyan government has been trying to contain the incidents with little success.

Already, the tourism sector has lost over $59 million following the cancellations announced last week. These affected bookings that had been made between now and October 2014.

The government has been quick to criticize western nations that the advisories are uncalled for since the attacks are not on an alarming scale. According to quarters in government, the western nations have blown the terrorism issue out proportion.

“We see the travel advisories and the stand by western nations led by the United Kingdom as a deliberate effort to crumble the Jubilee government through economic sabotage. We will however count on true friends like China to support us in these times,” a senior member of the ruling Jubilee government is quoted as saying.

Kenya has in the recent years adopted a ‘look East’ diplomatic policy where it has directed most of its trade and diplomatic interests to eastern economic powerhouses such as China, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. This newfound relationship is looked at with unease especially by the traditional western partners.

According to the Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers Chief Executive Officer Mike Macharia about 900 tourists have left the country and there is need to salvage other bookings for the peak season in November. Players in the sector have called on the government to engage the British foreign office in bid to lift the ban.

“If nothing happens we can kiss tourism goodbye and we can go back to the drawing board, Britain, Australia, France and their United States source markets form part of the core tourism suppliers, if any of these is affected it has such a huge impact on tourism revenue ,” he said.The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) said the advisory includes Mombasa island and within five kilometres of the coast from Mtwapa creek in the north to Tiwi in the south excluding Diani or Moi international airport. Last year, insecurity caused tourist arrivals to decline marginally as international arrivals by air and sea dropped by 11.7 percent to close at 1.09 million arrivals down from 1.23 million arrivals recorded in 2012 while Jomo Kenyatta International Airport arrivals dropped by 14 percent to 900,000 from 1.047 million recorded in 2012.

By Humphrey Liloba, Sunday, May 25th, 2014


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