Coast tourism alarmed over low number of charter flights

By Philip Mwakio

Mombasa, Kenya: Tourism stakeholders  in Mombasa are crying foul over alleged Government’s failure to address key issues affecting global aviation with regard to charter flights.

Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers (Kahc) Coast Branch Executive officer, Sam Ikwaye said that lack of incentives like open sky policy and red tape in issuing of landing rights have frustrated airlines seeking to fly the Mombasa route.

“We have lost out considerably to Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles, Zanzibar and Mauritius which have benefited from flight diversion by international charter flights that were originally to come to Mombasa,’’ he noted. The comments comes in the wake of reports that the current Edelweiss charter operations from Switzerland that served both Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Mombasa’s Moi International Airport (MIA)  will not return to Mombasa due to lack of sufficient  demand for seats. Industry analysts said that this would add more to concerns among the Coast based hotel and resort operators, already suffering from several flights withdrawals.

Matters of tourism

 Ikwaye noted that  the scenario where  tourism has been placed within a larger and expanded Ministry of East African Affairs and Commerce further complicates issues  as it become overwhelming when tending to critical matters on tourism.

‘’We as an industry feel that tourism is still getting lip service despite concerted efforts by the Cabinet Secretary Phyliss Kandie and her team to serve the multi billion dollar industry,” Ikwaye said.

He said the association would be glad if tourism is made an independent ministry.

Coast hoteliers have been battling a negative trend since late last year, when in the run up to the March General Elections key tour operators became over cautious and shifted long haul traffic from Kenya’s traditional markets to other destinations.

While the elections, as predicted, were peaceful and resulted in a new government, that government has since come under sustained criticism for increasing the tax burden on tourism products.

While Kenya Tourist Board is trying to promote Kenya and the beach resorts, the coast resort operators in particular claim not enough is being done.

Scheduled services

They are also demanding open-air access by foreign airlines to Mombasa, where presently only Ethiopian, Turkish Airlines, RwandAir and Air Uganda are flying scheduled services into Moi International Airport.

The announcement that Edelweiss will not come to Mombasa next winter is seen as another challenge the hoteliers have to meet and there will no doubt be substantial lobbying when Kenya attends the forthcoming ITB Tourism Trade Fair in Berlin  from March 5 to 9, 2014. ITB Berlin is the world’s largest tourism convention in the world.