Kenya’s 2010 tourism earnings up, sees rosy 2011

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s tourism earnings hit a record in 2010, driven by more high-end visitors and the country forecast it would rake in even more this year by increasing marketing and taking advantage of unrest in North Africa.

Tourism Minister Najib Balala said the country would need to spend more on marketing to promote its beaches and game safaris, but would also need to reduce political infighting, which was souring Kenya’s image.

The state-run tourist board has been positioning Kenya to appeal to high-spending tourists since 2009 and the industry is among the top foreign currency earners for east Africa’s biggest economy alongside horticulture and tea exports.

“We should take advantage of the crisis in North Africa, Egypt and Tunisia ... which is a major tourist destination. Now they are out of the market, we should take advantage of that, but if we don’t have the resources to market aggressively even during this time, we will not get that share here,” said Balala.

“We need to market aggressively. If we have the resources, we shall have 1.4 million passengers by end of year.”

The sector earned 73.68 billion shillings ($887.1 million) in 2010, up 18 percent from 62.46 billion shillings a year earlier, but failed to hit a 100 billion target. Last year’s earnings rose beyond the previous peak of 65.4 billion shillings reached in 2007, the best year in the sector’s history, before post-election violence and a global economic downturn dented revenues in 2008.

Balala said that with the right resources, it was possible to surpass 2010’s arrival figures. Tourist arrivals stood at 1.1 million visitors, short of a 1.2 million target for the year but up from 952,481 arrivals in 2009.

“Our traditional markets are down, the markets that did well are India and Italy,” Balala said.

Traditional markets for Kenya include the United Kingdom, Germany and North America — all fell due to the lingering effects of the global financial crisis.

Piracy by Somalia bandits saw cruise arrivals fall to 558 last year from 12,096 a year before, as holidaymakers responded to a rise in cases of kidnappings.

The World Bank has said Kenya should revamp its tourism to diversify beyond the wildlife safari and beach tourism, and suggested that facilities at the coast be renovated.

However, in many cases the cost of repairs exceeded the value of the facilities, thus making it unfeasible to undertake.

“The main product that is tired is the beach destination. We are lacking good quality products in terms of hotels,” Balala said. “In terms of the safari circuit, it is doing very well. People have invested in boutique lodges and boutique hotels (mainly catering for wealthy tourists).”

Balala said for tourism to achieve even further growth, politicians had to tone down their rhetoric and avoid public spats as seen recently when the president and prime minister were at odds over judicial appointments.

“Let’s tone down politics ... If we play it in a more civil way, we can be able to balance between our economy, our image and the game itself of politics,” he said.