Visitors to Kenya fall 8.8% in 2012/13 over vote, Eurozone

Friday, 13 September 2013 03:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

NAIROBI (Reuters): The number of tourists visiting Kenya fell by 8.8% in the fiscal year ending in June because of uncertainty around a March election and the ongoing financial crisis in the euro zone that hurt a major market for visitors. Revenues in the same period fell 7.4%, to 96.24 billion Kenyan shillings ($1.10 billion) in 2012/13 from 103.91 billion a year earlier. Tourism is one of Kenya’s main sources of foreign exchange. Others are tea and horticultural exports and remittances from Kenyans working abroad. The number of visitors arriving in the 2012/13 financial year was 1.168 million, compared to 1.280 million in the previous year, Phyllis Kandie, Minister of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism, said in a statement. Worries that the March elections would turn violent, as they had done five years earlier, dampened tourism arrivals and business sentiment. But the vote went peacefully, which has given the economy confidence boost since then. Kenya has in the past reported tourism figures for the calendar year, rather than financial year running July to June. Officials have said they expect tourism numbers and revenues to climb during the calendar year 2013 over 2012.

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