Tourist arrivals at Moi International Airport grows by 46pc

263 Belgium tourists arriving at Moi International Airport in 2009. Belgium is a major contributor to Kenyan tourism with 0.9 percent of visitor arrivals into the country. [Photo: Courtesy]

Tourism in Mombasa has yet again hit a high after it recorded a 46 percent increase in international tourist arrivals in the past eight months.

Moi International airport reported an increase in the number with Tourism Principal Secretary Joe Okudo saying that the trend was due to initiatives from the Charter Incentives Program that he believes raised chartered flights into Mombasa County.

The air station recorded 84,286 visitor arrivals between January and August this year from last year’s 57,588 under the same period.

“We are keen on attracting more visitors from the market with ease of access through the connection to Kenya from Brussels via Netherlands (via Schipol), SWISS (Zurich) and Germany (via Frankfurt),” Okudo said.

Okudo was speaking on Saturday when he received 150 tourists that were brought in by a team of visitors from TUI Belgium Charter to the Kenyan coast for a week-long tour.

The PS linked the success of CI program in helping reposition the Kenyan coast as a tourist destination hub to proper infrastructure that have been developed by the county administration such as roads, airstrips and airports.

Okudo held that the SKAL congress which ended recently put the country as a hub destination for all visitors from 38 countries who arrived into the country for the forum.

“We are optimistic of maintaining this momentum in the coming months as we aim to achieve our target growth of tourist numbers by 17 percent at the end of year,” he believed.

Belgium is a major contributor to Kenyan tourism with a projected market share of 0.9 percent of visitor arrivals into the country.

The Weekly flight is expected to increase the number of Belgium tourists visiting the coast with record showing that in 2017, the market documented 61 percent growth with 10,170 tourist arrivals from a previous of 6,320 in 2016.