By DOREEN WAINAINAH And MATHIAS RINGA
Tourism industry players have stepped up efforts to woo visitors from West Africa and United Arab Emirates even as hoteliers blame county governments for rolling back the gains.
The Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) has partnered with Kenya Airways and a West African tour operator to intensify marketing in Ghana and Nigeria.
The partnership with the online tour operator, Wakanow, will also give Kenya access to the source markets in the Middle East and Europe where the firm operates.
The current foray represents Kenya’s marketing shift, which is paying more attention on new avenues for luring visitors from local and African markets as opposed to the volatile traditional sources.
“The ease of travel facilitated by the existing Visa free rule and direct flight by Kenya Airways are already advantages that Ghana and Nigeria can leverage on to increase traffic,” Ghana Tourism Authority acting CEO Charles Bonsu said in a statement issued after a joint training session with KTB officials in Accra.
The number of tourists have dwindled in the last three years as visitors from Europe and US shun the country’s attraction for fear of terrorist attacks.
In the first five months of the year, international arrivals declined by 25 per cent to 284,313 from 381,278 in the same period last year.
The shift to African markets is buoyed last year’s data which show that despite the insecurity concerns, visitors from the continent increased to 294,000 last year, from 231,000 in 2013.
At home however, hoteliers have raised the red flag over a raft of levies introduced by various counties, which they said risk delaying the industry’s recovery.
The Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers CEO Mike Macharia said nearly all the 47 counties have imposed levies on hoteliers and tour firms since 2013.
“Kisumu, for instance, has imposed a swimming pool levy for hotels with such facilities while county governments at the Coast have introduced bed levies, collecting charges even on empty beds,” he said.
“How will tour operators survive if most of the counties impose transport levy on vans ferrying holidaymakers?”
A beach resort in Diani. The number of tourists have dwindled in the last three years as visitors from Europe and US shun the country’s attraction for fear of terrorist attacks
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