BALALA’S REIGN AT THE MINISTRY OF TOURISM

Hon. Najib Balala took over the Kenya’s tourism docket when source markets had a very negative perception of Kenya as a destination. However he was able to salvage the industry from this den of uncertainties. 
Balala reign at the docket; Late 2007 brought what many of us had not anticipated. As a result of the Post Election Violence (PEV), the tourism industry literally went on its knees. Tourist arrivals registered earlier that year stood at 1,048,732. Notably, this is the year that had been the best in the history of Kenya’s tourism.

Hon. Balala

2008 in terms of arrivals had little to talk about. Plans were initiated to the counter effects of PEV to the industry. This is when adult visa fees had to be reduced by 50% from US$ 50 to US$ 25 and a waiver extended to children under 16 years. This yielded fruits with 2009 the year registering a tremendous improvement at 952,481 arrivals. That was 12% shy away from 2007 arrivals.

The tradition of over dependence in traditional markets was broken. Marketing campaigns were initiated in the Middle and Far East and this saw Asian markets contribute about 12% of Kenya’s International tourists by 2010.

As a way of promoting Kenya’s tourism, Kenya Tourism Board started advertising in international media as well as participating in major international trade fairs and undertaking road shows abroad.

Definitely this among other contributions of the former minister in the Ministry of Tourism should serve as a benchmarking ‘mwakenya’ to the incumbent Minister of Tourism, Hon. Danson Mwazo.