Tourism Cabinet Secretary Phylis Kandie reassures tourists of safety following Westgate attack

By Philip Mwakio

Kenya: Kenya Tuesday used the opening of the four-day long World Travel Market (WTM) in UK to reassure international tourists of their safety while holidaying in the country.

Cabinet Secretary for Tourism, East African Affairs and Commerce Ms Phylis Kandie who is leading over 50 companies from the local travel and hospitality industry reassured travelers that Kenya remains a safe country despite the recent Westgate attacks by terrorists.

“We are here to now reaffirm our resilience and that Kenya is safe for our tourists, the government has put in place a raft of security measures to scale up security for both visitors and tourists alike,” says Kandie.

The Kenyan delegation is among over 5,000 suppliers of travel and tourist products who are meeting to discover and negotiate the latest travel industry trends and opinions at the WTM, one of the largest tourism fairs in the world.

Arrival numbers

Kandie said the Kenya Tourism stand with the theme ‘The Best of Kenya’ resonated well with the campaign the tourism sector has stepped up to restore the arrival numbers that dropped in the 2012 – 2013 financial year to about 8.8 per cent, to record 1,167,741 international arrivals compared to 1,280,314 in the same period in the 2011/2012 financial year.

She said while the country was focusing on emerging and regional markets, key traditional source markets such as the UK continue to top overall, although numbers from that market have dropped in the past couple of months.

As per recent statistics, the UK market is the leading visitor market contributing 13.8 per cent of the total inbound traffic with 68,676 arrivals, going by the half year (January to June) arrival figures.

The market however shows a decline of 17.8 per cent compared to the same period in 2012 which posted 83,504 arrivals.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) Managing Director Muriithi Ndegwa expressed his optimisms of reversing the downward trend following a number of marketing strategies KTB has put in place.

Boost numbers

“WTM is one of the platforms toshowcase Kenya as a destination, our product diversification strategy, global campaigns and the renewed confidence in the destination that is expected to boost our numbers from the market” he said.

He said there is renewed vigour to reposition Kenya as a preferred tourism destination at a time when there is increased competition.