Tourism targets Sh80bn from a million visitors

The tourism sector expects over a million visitors this year with a projected earning of about Sh80 billion.

?For 2010, our target remains more than a million visitors flying in; more than a billion US dollars revenue attributable to tourism,? the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) chairman Jake Grieves-Cook said on Monday.  If it meets the target, the sector would have matched its 2007 performance, which is its best year when over a million tourists came calling thus earning Sh65 billion for the economy.

This takes into account the exchange rate because in 2007, the US dollar was trading at about Sh65 compared to the current rate of about Sh80. Tourism, the third largest foreign exchange earner after horticulture and tea, earned Sh62.46 billion in 2009 from 950,000 visitors.

The 2009 performance was an improvement from Sh52.71 billion and about 729,000 visitors in 2008, when the post-election violence and the global economic slowdown hit the hard the sector.

Slightly below

Mr Grieves-Cook?s projection came as KTB - the statutory body charged with marketing the country as a tourist destination - announced that tourists visiting Kenya in the first four months of this year rose to 336,179 from 289,518 last year.  It is, however, slightly bellow the 340,902 visitors who came into the country in the first quarter of 2007.

This year?s first quarter arrivals were largely driven by markets that fully recovered and surpassed their 2007 levels, including the US, India, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Netherlands, China, Australia, UAE, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Mexico.

?We could have had more had the Iceland volcano not disrupted the airline industry,? KTB research manager Michael Riungu told a press briefing at Hotel Intercontinental, Nairobi.

The board?s managing director Muriithi Ndegwa said they are diversifying their markets to China, Australia, South Africa, the Gulf region, Russia and domestically through advertising to boost the performance.

?We are targeting the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries because they are projected to start contributing significantly to outward tourism travel,? said Mr Ndegwa adding that they will still be marketing the country in its traditional markets - US, UK, Italy and Germany.

During the briefing, Acting Tourism ministry permanent secretary Eunice Miima admitted that August 4 constitutional referendum is critical to the industry?s wellbeing depending on how it is handled.

?It is true there are concerns as to whether it will be a replica of 2007. But it depends on how the nation handles the process. If it handles it peacefully and constructively, it will be no problem. I am hopping it will be peaceful,? said Ms Miima.

Legal framework

The PS said they forwarded the Tourism Bill, which will provide the legal framework for the regulation of the industry, to the Attorney General?s office. ?We expect to enact it before the end of this year,? she said.