Tourism lobby to pen deal with KQ
Kenya Airways CEO Mbuvi Ngunze speaks during the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a framework for collaboration in the establishment and development of MICE Tourism products, on October 1, 2015 at KICC in Nairobi. The Malindi Watamu Tourism Association wants to ride on the airline’s flight networks in the region to boost tourism. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Tourism is a key forex earner for Kenya but a spate of past terrorism attacks has caused a big drop in foreign visitor arrivals after Western nations issued travel advisories, denying the economy hard currency inflows.
- The US, UK, Australia and Germany have since lifted their travel warnings on key coastal holiday towns due to improved security, raising hopes for sector revival.
A tourism lobby group is set to sign a deal with Kenya Airways to market the Kenyan coast to visitors from landlocked African countries.
The Malindi Watamu Tourism Association wants to ride on the airline’s flight networks in the region to boost the number of holiday makers to the Kenyan coast amid competition from Zanzibar and South Africa.
“We are signing the MoU (memorandum of association) with KQ in the next 10 days,” Roberto Marini of the association said on the sidelines of a media briefing by the Kenya Tourism Federation, the umbrella body for tourism private firms.
KQ, as the Nairobi-based airline is popularly known, flies to more than 25 African towns.
Tourism is a key forex earner for Kenya but a spate of past terrorism attacks has caused a big drop in foreign visitor arrivals after Western nations issued travel advisories, denying the economy hard currency inflows.
The slump saw some hotels close shop and thousands of workers laid off.
The US, UK, Australia and Germany have since lifted their travel warnings on key coastal holiday towns due to improved security, raising hopes for sector revival.
Official data shows that visitors arriving through Moi International Airport in the coastal city of Mombasa grew by 9.8 per cent to 31,810 in the first four months of the year up from 28,967 in the same period last year.
Sector players have warned that the rising political heat as the country heads to the General Election next year runs the risk of spooking tourists.
Kenya’s tourism peak season is in July through September, coinciding with the epic wildebeest migration across Mara River in Maasai Mara National Reserve in Narok.
Tourism Transformation Taskforce Chairperson Lucy Karume said that they have engaged with politicians to reduce the negative effects their politicking is having on the sector.
She welcomed the government’s move to exempt valued added tax on game park fees, tour operator services and the creation of a special fund to market the country’s offerings.
