TOURISM’ POOR PERFORMANCE DRAGS GROWTH IN KENYA DOWN BY 1.4 PERCENT
(Posted 14th October 2014)
Not long after reporting tourism’s first half performance last night did a source from Nairobi send additional data, which were equally released slightly late by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
The impact of tourism’s lower than anticipated contribution to the national economy, KNBS claims that sectoral activity was down by 18.6 percent, also led to the lowering of the overall economic forecast which was reduced from 7.2 to only 5.8 percent in the second quarter to 2014.
In contrast did Kenyan manufacturing grow by 9.1 percent while construction proved to be the main propellant with a rise of nearly 19 percent on a year on year comparison.
The data come on the back of astonishing revelations two weeks ago that the accounting methods used in the past t determine the overall economic activity produced figures which were understating the size of Kenya’s economy by a staggering 25 percent, making it one of Africa’s top ten economies at the stroke of a pen.
Tourism operators expressed no surprise over these latest data as they had already started to digest the news unleashed upon the sector yesterday when the first half downturn was published by the Kenya Tourism Board. ‘We are now waiting for the data for the third quarter from July until end of September to know where we are heading’ added the source which had provided the KNBS data before adding ‘Overall for 2014 we need to prepare ourselves for a significant downsizing of the sector but for 2015 there is now new hope after the hosted buyers at Magical Kenya showed their own confidence that they can sell Kenya again, just as long as there are no more incidents’.
It will be watch and wait for the pundits, at least those who rely on hard figures and not roam the realm of pure speculation.
