Coast governors seek help to revive tourism

Governors from Coast address the Press after a meeting with Western envoys on curbing terrorism and reviving tourism in Nairobi, Wednesday.   [PHOTO: JENIPHER WACHIE/STANDARD]

By James Mbaka

Kenya: Six county governments from the Coast region will collaborate to combat terrorism, which has destroyed their tourism revenue base, led to closure of 20 hotels and loss of more than 5,000 jobs.

The counties that are now feeling the heat of a slump in the tourism sector, occasioned by the fragile security situation in the country, resolved to work with development partners, among them Western nations, to tackle terrorism and resuscitate tourism.

The six governors; Hassan Joho (Mombasa), Salim Mvurya (Kwale), John Mruttu (Taita Taveta), Issa Timamy (Lamu), Amason Kingi (Kilifi) and Hussein Dado (Tana River), met envoys from four Western nations on Wednesday to discuss the impact of travel advisories largely blamed for the low number of tourists visiting the country.

The meeting was held at the residence of UK Ambassador Christian Turner, and was attended by three other envoys, Robert Godec (US), Remi Marechaux (France) and David Angell (Canada). The governors agreed on the need to initiate a consultative process and roll out programmes to address security concerns fueling the decline in tourism earnings.

The county bosses said the effect of a reduction in projected revenue collection from hotels in the Coast region, which have recorded a significant reduction in bookings, was real.

This they explained was what had compelled them to seek the meeting to convince the Western countries, which are the source of up to 40 per cent of the foreign tourists, to lift travel advisories and ask their citizens to visit the country.

Budget deficits

Particularly, the governors sought to stop de-radicalisation of youths from the Coast and to develop both short and long-term youth empowerment and capacity building programmes to enlighten them on their true beliefs as anchored in the Islamic teachings.

“In the tourism and related sectors, more than 5,000 people have already lost their jobs which are their only source of livelihood. We are not just losing important revenue for the country, we are releasing more and more people to the edge of crime as a result of idleness and depression,” the governors said in a joint statement.

The governors said they had factored earnings from the tourism sector in their budgets but the decline in the number of tourists in the counties would mean they would have to find alternative sources to fix their budget deficits.

“We shall review our projections of the earnings from the tourism sector downwards and seek alternatives to cushion our operations from the adverse effects occasioned by the downsized revenue from the now troubled sector,” said Timamy.

Addressing the Press at the Governors Liaison Offices at Delta House in Nairobi after a meeting with the envoys, the county chiefs said they had made a raft of proposals on how to boost tourism in the country and particularly the Coast, including developing programmes that would create income generating projects for the youth.

“We shall ensure that the 30 per cent tenders-for-the-youth policy by the Government is actualised and ensure we bring them on board to be active drivers of the country’s economy to reduce instances of radicalisation and crime that are scaring away tourists,” governor Joho said.

The governors are proposing public debates, exchange and teaching programmes for research as pragmatic solutions to the problems facing the region in the long-term.

“We want to introduce counter narrative strategies to the thousands of the brainwashed youths. We want them to have ideological agenda and engagement to a strong social fabric that respects the human dignity and right to life,” Joho added.

The governors lauded the recent approach by the national government to cushion the sector by introducing major incentives to promote local tourism and urged the local political class and the media to jealously defend the image of the country by avoiding sensational statements that only serve to aggravate the otherwise fragile situation.

“We call upon Kenyans to support security organs by sharing vital information while at the same time urge our fellow leaders to refrain from making political rhetoric that may further aggravate the situation. Security is a collective responsibility for all Kenyans,” the governors said.

They said they had put in place mechanisms to save jobs among them curio shops attendants at the Coast by helping them put up small shops to sell their wares as a way of keep them busy to stop them from sliding into crime.