Kenya Announces 16% Growth In Tourism Arrivals

The tourism sector is once again celebrating news of another increment in tourist’s arrivals in Kenya for the period ending October 2011. Announcing the results of the 16% growth at Utalii House, tourism minister Najib Balala attributed the growth in the arrivals to the sector’s efforts of diversification of source markets and ventures into emerging economies. The new results indicate that for the period January- October 2011, arrivals closed at 1,039,852 compared to 896,228 for the same period in 2010 accounting for 16% growth.

“This growth is higher than the global and regional rate of 4.5% and 4% respectively and if this trend continues, we expect this year to close at about 1.3 million arrivals by air and sea compared to last year’s 1.1 million” said Hon Balala.

Consequently, the estimated tourism receipts for the period ending October 2011 closed at Kshs. 81.96 Billion compared to Kshs 56.72 Billion in the similar period last year.This was an Hon. Najib Balala, Minister for Tourism at utalii Houseincrease of 44.4% compared to the same period last year.

Minister Balala says if this trend is sustained and taking into account the depreciation of the Kenya Shilling that the country has been experiencing, it then means that the country can be able to hit the Kshs 100 billion by the end of the year in terms of tourism earnings.

The Minister noted that tourism performance in 2011 has shown positive growth from all source markets with growth from traditional markets experiencing less growth than expected. This, the minister attributed it to the Euro Zone crisis Coming at a time when the country is dealing with its boarder securities, the minister said emerging markets were the driver of the total growth with most of them recording above 40% growth: The markets he noted include UAE (46.8%), Poland (62.9%), Russia (46.6%), Czech Republic (51.6%) and Hungary (42.1%). This the minister observed was a clear indicator that the market diversification efforts were bearing fruit.

The regional markets have also shown tremendous growth, Uganda has maintained its lead in the arrivals from the African region, recording 36,030 inbound visitors, 36.5% growth compared to the same period in 2010. Following closely, is South Africa that recorded 31,355 arrivals a 13.5% growth compared to the same period in 2010. Tanzania came in third place, with 28,435 arrivals, a 11.3% growth from the same period in 2010.

Prospects for 2012
Despite 2012 being an election year, the minister expressed his optimism that he expects the positive tourism growth to continue buoyed by the arrival of new chartered and scheduled airlines especially from the new markets. The airlines he noted include Novair (Sweden) and Pegas Touristik (Russia) which have already operating regular flights to Mombasa. Others that have committed themselves to start flying into Kenya from early next year include Air Korea, Southern China Airlines, Jordanian Airlines and Etihad.