Lobby denies ‘mass’ tourist evacuations

Only one UK tour firm evacuated tourists from the Coast, a tourism association has said.

Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association (MCTA) chairman Mohamed Hersi Sunday said only TUI UK evacuated its clients from hotels in South Coast.

Hotels in Mombasa, he said, are still averaging between 30 and 40 per cent occupancy.

The MCTA official claimed that the UK tour firm evacuated about 700 of its clients in the region last week, and not 5,000 British tourists as had been reported.

“Before last week’s evacuation, TUI UK used to make one flight a week, bringing only 250 holidaymakers to Mombasa,” he said.

“The tourists ferried by the UK firm normally stay here for two weeks. We wonder where the 5,000 figure came from,” Mr Hersi told Nation Sunday.

He noted that leading tour firms, including Thomas Cook, Kuoni UK, Cosmos and Hayes&Jarvis, have not evacuated their British clients from the country.

“We have several United Kingdom tour companies which still support our tourism sector by allowing their clients to continue enjoying their holidays at the Coast,” he said.

Mr Hersi, who is also the Heritage Hotels chief executive officer, thanked the German government for allowing its citizens to stay at Coast hotels.

Tourists from the Scandinavian countries, Germany and other European countries, he added, were still enjoying their holidays in Mombasa.

He assured international tourists that hotels at the Coast are safe. He explained most hotels had invested heavily in security equipment such as CCTVs and scanners.