By Patrick Beja

Residents and hoteliers are upbeat about security as the annual Lamu cultural festivals begin today.

Hotel operators said inquiries by local tour agents handling tourists from Europe had increased and they hoped the sector would fully recover.

"We have been resilient and remained open although some private guest-houses shut temporarily. We hope the cultural festival will improve the situation and bring more visitors," said Reservations Officer at the Lamu Palace, Mr Suleiman Mwawasi.

He said it was encouraging a tourist had stayed at the hotel for 18 days and moved freely on the beaches because he was convinced Lamu was safe. The hotel operators appealed to countries, which have slapped travel advisories on Kenya to lift them to ensure speedy recovery of the sector.

"We are sure foreign States are convinced by the Government’s security mechanism and we urge them to lift the advisories," said a hotel operator and organiser of the Lamu cultural festival, Mr Gharib Alwy.

Domestic tourism

At the same time hotel operators and residents appealed to the Government to rehabilitate the 80km-long Malindi-Lamu road, saying smooth transport would boost domestic tourism.

At the moment, it takes about ten hours instead of five to travel by bus from Mombasa to Lamu, the locals complained. Transport operators have threatened to hold demonstrations to force the Government repair the road following many failed pledges over the years.

Mr Alwy said the road might discourage domestic tourists who would have made up for a drop in foreign tourists.

"Domestic tourists would sustain us during this season but the bad state of the road discourages many such tourists," he said.

He noted that it costs about Sh800 to travel by bus from Mombasa to Malindi while air travel from Nairobi costs more than Sh11,000.

He noted that the bad condition of the road was slowly killing the local economy, including transportation of fish and agriculture produce.

His sentiments were echoed by a resident, Mr Mohamed Bwanamkuu who said traveling from Mombasa to Lamu had become a nightmare particularly after recent heavy rains.

And combined with the sporadic, numerous security checks along the way, the journey on the highway had increasingly become longer.