KENYA’S TOURISM INDUSTRY REELS FROM CONTINUED NEGATIVE REPORTS ON TERROR
(Posted 01st April 2014)
‘It just does not end’ lamented a regular senior tourism source from Nairobi when discussing the latest explosion in the Eastleigh area of the capital Nairobi, a part of the city where repeatedly in the past explosives were thrown and in subsequent police swoops dozens of suspects arrested. ‘Last week the Likoni shooting in a church which attracted a lot of negative press publicity abroad, a few days before that the discovery of explosive laden vehicles, some apparently even parked at police stations and now this. Our colleagues at the coast were hoping for a mini boom for the Easter period especially after our domestic travel exhibition at the Sarit Centre last week but with such reports and actual events the market is disturbed. Within the hour I had two enquiries this evening from clients abroad again, which means they are monitoring events in Kenya. The social media were immediately full of the incident and of course this has an impact on demand. Every Kenyan knows that to go to the south coast they have to cross Likoni ferry and of course people ask questions, legitimate questions’ the source then added.
While no figures have been made public as yet, with the first quarter of the year already gone, Kenya’s tourism arrivals for 2013 remain a matter of speculation. Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie continues to deliver her usual ‘sunshine speeches’ as several tourism stakeholders have put it in recent comments which remain far from the reality on the ground and offer no real immediate relief to a tourism sector which is struggling with the onslaught of bad press and negative perception abroad in key market places. It is an open secret that occupancies at the Kenya coast remain substantially below those of last year. With the low season coming up are hotel and resort closures looming on the horizon and the subsequent loss of jobs will add to the woes of a government which over the past one year has patently failed to recognize the real needs of the sector and respond to ever louder cries for help. Tax increases further depressed demand while the market was already softening, lack of sufficient funds to market the country – Kenya did not have an official stand at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai this year – has curtailed the scope of recovery marketing and sharply divided opinions over the usefulness of fragmenting the public sector administration of the tourism industry, combined with fears that the Kenya Tourism Board is about to be swallowed up in a merger with other entities, have unsettled the industry and bred growing opposition to the official government positions. ‘Our last hope for immediate relief is now vested in the recently launched tourism advisory board. If their recommendations, which in fact are demands by their peers, not requests, are not followed and implemented, tourism will continue to struggle and instead of adding jobs which a thriving sector could accomplish within weeks, more jobs will be lost’ added another source yesterday evening when also discussing the latest explosion in Eastleigh, an area of Nairobi where suspected Al Shabab sympathizers have in the past managed to hide from law enforcement.
Another source then raised the question of poaching and said: ‘No matter what officials and ministers say in defense of their fiefdoms, fact is that the figures have just exploded in our faces. It is time we see action, not hear about it, see results and not be told there is no crisis but a challenge. This is not the time to play with semantics and there again, the government had a year and it was a miserable one, just like for tourism’.
The Eastleigh explosions, talk is of at least two in close vicinity, in the early hours of yesterday evening killed at least 6 people according to reports received and injured many more, only a day after a suspected terrorist appears to have blown himself up accidentally when trying to assemble an explosive device. During that incident, according to Kenyan media reports, did as many as three accomplices manage to escape prompting another manhunt. On the upside it should be pointed out that with the exception of one failed incident last year at the Likoni ferry ramp, tourists have not been made a specific target yet or else have security measures put into place by security organs in general and hotels and resorts in particular prevented any such attempts.
Watch this space for breaking news updates from Kenya and the entire East African region.
