COULD THERE BE CHANGE IN THE AIR FOR KENYA’S TOURISM FORTUNES?
(Posted 12th May 2015)
News are emerging from Nairobi that the budget estimate, emphasis on budget ESTIMATE, for the country’s tourism promotion for the financial year 2015/2016 has been increased over sixfold from the current year’s 1.1 billion Kenya Shillings to some 7 billion Kenya Shillings.
The news came as an apparent surprise to many tourism stakeholders immediately spoken with since late yesterday and it signals the first serious reaction to the pleas of the industry for some determined and serious government action to help revive the flagging sector.
Revenues since 2012, which was the best year ever for Kenya’s tourism industry, fell from the 100 billion Kenya Shillings to only 86 billion last year and the trend continues into 2015 with no reversal of fortunes in sight yet.
Arrivals for the first quarter of this year equally dropped to a record low not seen in decades, in particular at the international airport in Mombasa.
The Tourism Recovery Task Force had in March handed in a detailed report to the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Tourism but until the news broke over the apparent sharp rise in the country’s marketing budget were few if any signs emerging from government circles how the response to the list of extensive recommendations and demands would be. The list from the report however is long and another key indicator of government taking the sectoral woes seriously at last will be the removal of VAT from tourism services, which the same government recognizes as an invisible export.
Negative anti travel advisories, slapped on Kenya by Britain and some of the UK’s regular allies in bashing Africa, have resulted in entire charter chains being pulled, leaving coast resorts reeling from the impact of low tourist numbers, and while Kenyans and East Africans are clearly spending more time at the beaches now than before this is limited to long weekends, national holidays and school holiday periods and accomplished by some deep discounting to make such vacations affordable. In fact have some hotels broken new ground, like Heritage Hotels, when they launched packages which combine with bus travel from Nairobi and even the hinterland to the coast, with clients then picked at the bus terminal and transferred to the Voyager Resort. Others have continued to promote fly in packages banking on potential guests to book long enough in advance to get the lowest rates with Jambojet, presently set at 2.950 Kenya Shillings one way and others yet have struck deals with Kenya Airways Holidays to promote coast holidays in as far as Uganda, Rwanda and even beyond. However, all these efforts cannot make up for the loss of key markets like the UK and parts of Europe and the available funding, when and IF it is fully disbursed – the Kenyan parliament will first have to approve the budget of course – will assist to launch major recovery marketing efforts in former core markets while also working new and emerging markets hard. As said in another article last night, will the Kenya Tourism Board and local partners have to engage with foreign and local airlines alike to have them also join such marketing efforts to utilise existing scheduled flights into Mombasa. Opening the Kenyan skies of course would bring an added boost but at present there is no indication that the KCAA has yet fully understood the impact of their erecting a Berlin aviation wall around the country and ringfencing local aviation interests over national interests.
The news, if indeed accurate – the source is not known to exaggerate or mislead – will be the first major set of good news Kenya’s tourism stakeholders will have received in the two years of this government in place and it can only be hoped that the additional funding is put to the best possible use to make Kenya shine again abroad.
Earlier in the week did the Kenya coast tourism fraternity express their frustration over the slashed tourism promotion budget by the Mombasa County government which was also reported here. Time to watch this space to find out how this will play out and if the financial boost in the marketing budget can translate into a confidence boost and renew the zeal with which Kenyan tourism operators have been promoting the country at the just ended INDABA in Durban and two weeks earlier at the World Travel Market Africa in Cape Town.
