The Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) is urging stakeholders and the government to focus on keeping Kenyans safe during the festive season as arrival numbers have fallen by more than 20 percent in 2012 due to insecurity.
Speaking at a press conference celebrating KTB’s best tourism board in Africa award from the World Travel Awards earlier this month, KTB Managing Director Muriithi Ndegwa admitted that 2012 has been a difficult year for the industry due to insecurity, but revealed that there may have seen significant growth in domestic tourism.
“We’ve had a very challenging year, not just because of some of the incidences we’ve had locally, but also because of our reliance on some of the traditional markets that have gone through some very challenging time,” he said.
“This has impacted our sector negatively in terms of arrivals coming into this country. However we’ve had positive growth from the emerging countries such as countries in Asia, as well as the regional countries that neighbour Kenya,” he explained.
The number of tourists arriving in Mombasa dropped to 121,472 between January and August this year, compared to 156,521 in the same period last year but Ndegwa said that reports from hoteliers on the bookings for December indicate a high number of domestic tourists.
The CEO of the Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers Mike Macharia explained what players in the sector are doing to address the security challenges, but emphasised that it must be a collaboration between all the stakeholders involved.
“What the businesses have put in place are safety measures to counter the terrorism threat and this is also seen in shopping malls, public areas and churches,” he said.
“The threat of terror is there and it’s real, but the issue is what we’ll do about it. It’s not a function of government alone, it’s a function of a partnership between the businesses and the government,” he added.
Leave a Reply