Tourism fetches Sh333.9 million revenue in 16 months

Tourists disembark from the World Odyssey cruise ship at the Port of Mombasa. [File, Standard]

Tourism earnings have increased to Sh333.9 million in the past 16 months, government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura has said.

He said the earnings stood at Sh268 million when the Kenya Kwanza regime took over power.

Mwaura spoke on Thursday when he outlined achievements of the Ministries of Tourism and Wildlife, Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs and State Law Office.

“The government has boost tourism earnings from Sh268.08 million in 2022 to Sh333.9 million in 2023, an 80 per cent increase. This was as a result of enhanced holistic marketing,” said Mwaura.

He said the achievements are part of the ongoing review or audit dubbed “Government of Kenya Roadshow 2024.”

The audit includes the 22 ministries, 54 state departments and about 350 state agencies on service delivery performances for the past one year under the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).

The review, which started this month comes ahead of the second Cabinet retreat scheduled towards end of January.

Mwaura said six ministries have so far been reviewed since the exercised started.

He noted that tourism arrivals increased to 1.76 million in 2023 from 1.5 million in 2022, recording 18.4 per cent jump.

This was attributed to the increase in tourism receipts over holistic marketing and ease of travel restrictions across the world.

Mwaura noted that the visitors stay has increased from 10 to 11 days while spending in hotels went up by three percent on bed occupancy.

“Increased number of visitors to our parks rose from 2.18 million to 2.94 million clients, recording a 35 per cent increase. This was as a result of several campaigns undertaken among them the “Zuru Kenya Parks, Enjoy Mali Yako and other joint marketing campaigns spearheaded by the ministry,” he said.

He said refurbishment of Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) to modern standards has also yielded results.

“The refurbishment saw KICC tower host 14,090 international delegates in 2023 up from only 550 delegates in 2022 over the facelift that increased the centre’s competitiveness,” he said.

“Last year alone, our local and international conferences hit the 10,000 mark with an increase of 2,151 conferences, and over 14,000 delegates from around the world came in,” he added.

Other measures that increased tourism include sustainable investments in parks launched in 2023, whose implementation targets to increase bed nights from 1,831 to 4,062.

Mwaura said the government also migrated all park entry services for local and foreign tourists to e-citizen under the government’s digitisation and on-boarding of revenue collection services program.

He noted that this accounted for 90 per cent collection of the ministry’s Appropriation in Aid (AIA).

Grants to tourism programmes and projects increased to Sh2.2 million in 2023 compared to Sh1.3 million in 2022.

Mwaura said the audit has provided an opportunity for inward looking to improve and re-engineer the business processes.

Under State Law Office, Mwaura said the Attorney General was able to use Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism to resolve small claims for hustlers amounting to Sh15 million.

“In addition, 4,055 cases have been settled between families, resulting in over Sh3.1 billion worth of money being accessed by widows, widowers and other vulnerable members of the society such as persons with disabilities, without having to go to court,” Mwaura said.

The Government Spokesperson said the Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, has been keen on ensuring that the country does not export raw minerals.

Five value addition sites have been completed in Voi, Vihiga, Elgeyo Marakwet, and in Nairobi counties for gold, gemstone and other minerals.

"This will allow miners to get more value from their labour, translating to higher incomes for them and also foreign exchange to the country,” said Mwaura.

He said plans are underway to establish fluorspar and granite factories in Kerio Valley and Vihiga Counties.

Mwaura noted that 869 youth were recruited last year to go work in foreign ships.

In addition, he said 621 Common Interest Groups comprising of fishermen and other forms of trade within the blue economy were given Sh1.5 billion grants in the last one year to boost their businesses.

Some of the beneficiaries are 50 Beach Management Units (BMUs) that have also been transformed to cooperative societies, 26 boats have been donated by the government to eight BMUs, while 875 fishermen have been training on deep sea fishing.

This, he said is important as Kenya has fish in the deep sea that goes unexploited or is taken by other countries for free.

Further, 565 seaweed farmers have been trained in mariculture in Kwale county to enable them to conduct the venture in a profitable manner.