Sharp drop in tourist arrivals in Kenya threatens marine park revenues

Malindi, Kenya - The number of tourists to Kenya's four marine parks and six reserves in the Indian Ocean have dropped significantly in the past year, leading to a drop in revenue, says the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

 

Marine park tourism involves sight-seeing for underwater marine life using glass-bottomed boats, diving and snorkelling.

The drop has been blamed on insecurity and KWS now says security has been beefed up in the parks and reserves spread across Kenya's coastal waters between Kiunga on Kenya's border with Somalia and Shimoni on the Tanzanian border on the South Coast.

Yesterday, KWS Assistant Director in charge of Coast Conservation Area Adan Alio told The Standard security had been improved to ensure there were no threats in and around the water parks.

"We take great exception to concerns being raised about security and have put our marine rangers in patrol boats and on beaches, backed by our own intelligence officers, to ensure holidaymakers go about their business undisturbed," Mr Alio said.

He said revenues generated at the Mombasa Marine National Park and Reserve dipped from Sh5,302,570 in 2014 to Sh3,809,175 up to April 17, 2015. Some Sh1,412,160 was collected as revenue, down from Sh2,653,600 at the Malindi Marine Park in January 2015.

February 2015 saw Sh1,252,940 collected from marine gate charges while Sh2,795,445 was raised from the gate the previous year.

Monthly figures for Mombasa Marine National Park and Reserve indicate that in January 2015, there were 361 foreign adult visitors, down from 966 in January 2014.

In January 2015, there was a total of 1,661 domestic visitors who contributed Sh979,520 while in the same month in 2014, 2,548 domestic visitors came bringing in Sh1,879,066.

Figures for the other parks were not available but reports indicate virtually no tourists have gone to the parks in Kiunga this year.

However, KWS believes the figures might improve because, in overall terms, this year's visits surpass the average for the same period last year.

By April 17 this year, there were 2,300 visitors compared to 466 at the same time in 2014.

TRAVEL ADVISORIES

Alio said the low visitation has largely been attributed to the imposition of travel advisories by key tourism source markets from the United Kingdom, US and Australia.

"A substantial number of visitors to our marine parks are overseas tourists and with the advisories in place, visitor numbers have taken a plunge," he said.

He said KWS had increased beach patrols and was working closely with the Kenya Police Service and Kenya Navy to bolster security of the few visitors going to the parks. Alio said the April holidays were still popular with locals who came to sample the water parks.

"We expect a slight surge in visitors to the parks in Malindi, Watamu, Mombasa and Kisite Mpunguti in the South Coast, especially school parties from upcountry," he said.