NEW UGANDA AIRLINES FLIGHTS TO NAIROBI AND MOMBASA GIVE HOPE FOR FURTHER RISE IN VISITOR NUMBERS
(Posted 10th January 2020)
The latest arrival statistics for Kenya were released earlier today by the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, showing finely balanced gains and losses among the top 20 visitor source markets for Kenya.
The US continued their trend as leaders with the addition of a further 20.000+ visitors, making them the most sought after tourist visitors as they largely come to enjoy Kenya’s game parks rather than the beaches.
Uganda and Tanzania, holding position two and three respectively, have added and lost some 10.000 visitors each compared to 2018.
The UK in fourth place and India in fifth place – the latter set for a rise again in 2019 after the launch of Air India flights to Nairobi – have both seen arrivals to Kenya reduce by a combined approximately 5.000.
While both China and France showed gains in terms of arrivals has Germany sent less tourists to Kenya, as did Italy, South Africa, Canada, Ethiopia, the Netherlands and Nigeria.
More visitors came from Rwanda, Burundi, Australia, Spain and South Sudan.
The largest decrease of visitors was recorded at the various land borders with substantially less travelers crossing the border into Kenya but this was made up by significant rises in arrivals at both Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Moi International Airport.
In regional terms did the Americas lead by far with added numbers, as did ‘Others’ while traditional core markets, as described earlier, recorded falling numbers.
Over 63 percent of the arrivals gave as reason for their visit ‘holidays / tourism’, 13.5 percent stated business as they main reason for their visit, over 10.5 percent fell into the category of ‘Visiting Friends and Relatives’ while 12.75 percent stated they came for other reasons to Kenya.
Domestic tourism was once again the backbone for Kenya’s hospitality businesses as bednights in 2019 rose by over 10 percent to 4.955.800, up from 4.899.000 a year earlier (2018)
Tourism receipts rose by close to 4 percent to 163.56 billion Kenya Shillings, up from last year when the figure stood at 157.38 billion Kenya Shillings.
On a more humorous note, and in closing, will this correspondent now start to travel with a walking stick and in slightly bent down composure, to match the image of the 4 percent visitors to Kenya aged 65 and over …
Thanks to the Tourism Research Institute for producing these data at a record pace, not seen before at such an early stage in the year. allowing the private sector and tourism planners to base decisions for 2020 and beyond on sound statistics and not having to rely on ‘gut feelings’.
