By Macharia Kamau
Tourism industry posted a poor performance last year, with sector earnings and visitor numbers declining by two per cent owing to pre-election jitters, rise in insecurity, and the economic crisis in Europe that persisted throughout the year.
The industry raked in Sh96.02 billion between January and December, compared to Sh97 billion the previous year, translating to a 1.92 per cent decline. For many years tourism was the country’s top foreign exchange earner for years. But in recent years, its has lost that title to tea, which earned the country in excess of Sh120 billion last year.
The number of tourists visiting the country dropped 2.3 per cent from 1.26 million in 2011 to 1.23 million visitors last year.
Global average
“Kenya’s arrivals performance in 2012 fell below the global average growth rate of four per cent. This may be attributed to various factors such as real and perceived insecurity of the destination, ongoing euro Zone crisis and uncertainty of the General Election process,” Tourism minister, Dan Mwazo, said yesterday at a briefing on industry performance.
But the Tourism ministry expects an improved performance this year. Muriithi Ndegwa, the managing director of the Kenya Tourist Board said all signs show this year will be a better year.
He said the worst-case scenario could be improvement on last year’s performance but he anticipates that the industry will surpass the 2011 performance.
“We had challenges as the first quarter of this saw many visitors adopt a ‘wait and see’ attitude. But after the electoral process, we are now getting positive feedback from the markets. This year will be better than last year,” he said at the briefing. The country’s traditional tourist source markets – of which only the United States posted a 3.6 per cent increase in the number of tourists to Kenya – that stood at 123,905.
Germany declined 5.1 per cent to 65,199, while number of visitors from the UK fell 8.5 per cent to 185, 976. Tourists from Italy – another key source market – declined by a significant 14.6 per cent to 82 330.
General elections
“The decline in European markets may be attributed to the Euro Zone crisis, travel advisories and delayed or late holiday bookings last year due to uncertainty on the date of the General Elections in Kenya. For the Italian market, cancellation of direct flights by Kenya Airways to Rome, and reduced charter frequency to the Coast were key factors,” he said.
Tourists from the rest of Africa as well as emerging source of markets – mostly Asia – have posted growth.
Middle East was the fastest growing emerging tourist source market, with visitors from the region growing 92 per cent to 40,485. Tourists from India grew 3.9 per cent to 61,275 while those from China grew 10 per cent 41,303.
“Growth from the Gulf states has been boosted by established routes from key airlines (Emirates, Etihad, Kenya Airways). Being a mid-haul destination from the UAE with fairer weather, Kenya is attractive to potential tourists from the expatriate community in Middle East,” said Mwazo.
Uganda remained the largest African source market, and also the fastest growing, with visitor number going up 30 per cent to register 55,449 visitors. South Africa was the second largest market in Africa and grew six per cent to register 40,707 visitors. Tanzania was the third largest source market despite a three per cent decline in the number of visitors to Kenya.
