Last year the tourism industry saw a two per cent decline in
visitor numbers and earnings, a situation attributed to insecurity, pre-election
nausea and Economic crises in Europe. Tourist Numbers dropped from 1.26 million
in 2011 to 1.23million last year a 2.3per cent drop. In earnings, it dropped
from Sh.97billion year 2011 to Sh.96.02 last year.
Kenya’s traditional tourist source markets led by United
stood at 123,905 which was a 3.6 per cent increase compared to drops from
Germany at 65,199 a 5.1 per cent decline, United Kingdom at 185,976 an 8.5 per
cent drop while Italy posted a decline at 14.6 percent to 82,330. Mureithi
Ndegwa, the managing director of the Kenya Tourist Board attributed the
significant decline from the Italian market to cancellation of direct flights
to Rome by Kenya Airways as well as reduction of frequent charters to the
Coast.
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| Elephants at Amboseli |
Uganda was the largest and fastest growing African source
market with a 30 per cent increase to 55,449. South Africa was second at 40,707
which is a 6 per cent growth while Tanzania was third. Emerging source markets
such as Asia posted remarkable growth with Middle East, India and China posting 92 per cent at 40, 485, 3.9 per cent
at 61,275 and 10per cent at 41,303 respectively. Tourism Minister Dan Mwanzo said
the growth had been boosted by established routes from key airlines namely
Etihad, Emirates, Kenya airways.
