Kenya sees tourism arrivals at 1.9 m in 2011

Reuters: Tourists visiting Kenya are expected to reach 1.9 million this year following a recovery by economies in Europe, the country’s main source market, but piracy is still a concern, the Tourism Minister said on Tuesday.

Best known for its world famous game parks and white-sandy coastline, Kenya attracted 1.1 million tourists in 2010, earning a record 74 billion shilling, making it one of the country’s leading sources of foreign exchange.

“I think we will clock 1.8-1.9 million ... total arrivals,” Najib Balala, the Tourism Minister told Reuters. “Our traditional markets are recovering economically this year. Last year some had not fully recovered.”

Traditional markets for east Africa largest economy – Britain, Italy, the United States, Germany and France – fell in 2010 due to lingering effects of the global financial crisis, but things are looking up, Balala said.

In the first quarter of this year, the traditional markets contributed the most arrivals by air and sea, boosting the sector to increase by 16 per cent to 390,148.

The euro zone crisis, primarily precipitated by Greece, is unlikely to affect tourism because it had affected countries such as Portugal and Spain that are an insignificant market for Kenya, Balala said.

Piracy off the coast of Somalia, a chaotic Horn of Africa nation, is eating into the country’s tourism arrivals, but is not expected to taint the sector’s projections, he said.

“The situation (piracy) is bad… and that is affecting us badly. We used to have 12 to 15 cruise liners coming into Mombasa, now hardly one,” said Balala.

Cruise arrivals tumbled to 558 last year, from 12,096 in 2009 due to the rising hijackings in the Indian Ocean.

Somali pirates have been preying on ships sailing in the waters off the lawless horn of Africa country and in the Gulf of Aden, raking in millions of dollars and driving up shipping costs.

Speaking at the media function, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Jonathan Scott Gration, said Somalia and piracy were high on his agenda.

“This (Somalia) is an area that is a high priority for me and I will work on it in a comprehensive and integrated way to include the piracy issue,” said Gration.

Delta Air Lines Inc, the No. 2 air carrier in the United States, was expected to launch direct flights to Kenya, but shelved the plans to an unknown date due to perceived insecurity emanating from anarchic Somalia, Balala said.

Neither Balala nor Gration could give a timeframe when Delta would start direct flights to Kenya.

Balala said Kenya has doubled the amount it spends to attract tourists from the United States to $1 million in a bid to increase visitors from that country.