Tourism should not be limited to Coast

It was refreshing to see Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala parachuting from an aircraft in a symbolic gesture to promote tourism and emphasise the need to protect the rare Hawks Bill turtle.

We have previously seen the CS welcoming tourists at the Coast after they disembarked from a ship. While these and many others are useful activities, the main concern is that his tourism promotional activities are mostly limited to the coastal region. This could be justified by virtue of the fact that the Coast is by far the most attractive destination for foreign and local tourists.

However, as Balala is serving the country at large, he should expand the scope of his promotional activities to cover all parts of the country. Lake Turkana is a silent tourist destination that the CS needs to put in the limelight. Tourists are always hiking up Mt Kenya.

Everyday there are tourists on the Mbita ferry terminal on their way to Rusinga Island. These tourism activities and many others go unnoticed or little is reported in the media about them.