Kenya eyes Asia, Middle East for more tourists

By WINSLEY  MASESE

KENYA: Kenya is banking on the Asian and the Middle East markets to drive upwards its tourism numbers.  With the country’s economic interests slowly shifting to the East, the change in strategy is set to improve tourist arrivals to three million annually, by 2017.

For decades, Kenya has enjoyed favourite ratings from key market areas such as North America and Europe. The Eurozone and other economic crunch have, however, seen arrivals in the country dwindle.

 According to the Oxford Business Group, a global publishing, research and consultancy firm, Kenya welcomed 1.8 million visitors in 2012 and hopes to increase that to three million within the next four years.  The tourism sector currently contributes about 14 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs as much as 12 per cent of the workforce.   The sector is also a significant source of foreign exchange, behind tea and coffee, bringing in $4.7 billion in 2011.

 The report indicated that first half of 2013 was a challenging period for the industry, with arrival numbers easing by 8.8 per cent, partly due to fears of civil unrest preceding elections.

Sharper declines

Like several other major African tourism destinations, sharper declines were observed in the number of tourists coming from Kenya’s largest traditional markets of the UK and the US, where economic gloom likely contributed to the fall. Visitors from UK were down 17 per cent to 170,000 while those from the US dropped 9.3 per cent to 116,000.