{"id":66524,"date":"2022-08-29T13:52:23","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T13:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenya-is-safe-for-travel-balala"},"modified":"2022-08-29T14:07:53","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T14:07:53","slug":"kenya-is-safe-for-travel-balala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenya-is-safe-for-travel-balala","title":{"rendered":"Kenya is safe for travel \u2013 Balala"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Kenya. <\/strong><\/span>Kenya is safe for travel, Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has assured the world.<\/p>\n

This is on the back of a peaceful election period where despite the Presidential results being contested, the country has remained calm with the different sectors of the economy up and running.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenya is among the top destinations in Africa. Kenya is safe for travel. Welcome to Magical Kenya,\u201d Balala wrote on his Twitter handle which has a huge following including tourism and travel industry players and marketers.<\/p>\n

His assurance comes as the country enters the full stretch of the tourism sector\u2019s peak season, which runs between July and August.<\/p>\n

The Maasai Mara is currently one of the places with high visitor traffic with both local and international tourists witnessing this year\u2019s wildebeest migration.<\/p>\n

The movement of animals between Serengeti and the Maasai Mara, across the Mara River, usually occurs around late July to August and stretches to parts of September.<\/p>\n

Their return south is normally around the last two weeks of October through early November.<\/p>\n

Hotels in the Mara are experiencing a boom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year will definitely be better than last year,\u201d Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers Caterers (KAHC) chief executive Mike Macharia told the Star.<\/p>\n

Kenya has embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign after a slow down in travel for the past two years, occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The ministry is banking on the five-year tourism strategy launched in May to steer the sector into full recovery.<\/p>\n

Dubbed \u201cthe new vision for Kenya\u2019s tourism\u201d the strategy seeks to diversify the country\u2019s tourism products, moving away from the traditional beach and safari.<\/p>\n

Kenya Tourism Board(KTB) is also spearheading marketing campaigns with at least 10 new markets in mind, as the country targets more than one million arrivals this year.<\/p>\n

This is after a 53.3 per cent increase in the number of international arrivals last year which closed at 870,465 up from 567,848 in 2020.<\/p>\n

The best year remains 2019 when the country recorded an all-time high arrival of 2.2 million international visitors.<\/p>\n

The country is now focusing on untapped markets, Tourism and Wildlife CS Najib Balala says, with the focus mainly in Europe.<\/p>\n

These include France, Sweden, Poland, Mexico, Israel, Iran, Australia, Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium.<\/p>\n

While they are not new markets, low marketing activities has denied the country to fully tap into them, with numbers remaining low.<\/p>\n

Last year, arrivals were 18,771 (France), 10,107 (Sweden), 9,809 (Poland), 1,972 (Mexico), 2,572 (Israel), 1,809 (Iran), 3,376 (Australia), 6,535 (Switzerland), 12,928 (Netherlands) and 5,697 visitors from Belgium.<\/p>\n

The sector has shown recovery signs so far this year according ton CS Balala.<\/p>\n

International arrivals to Kenya are projected to recover by up to 75 per cent this year.<\/p>\n

The first half of the year recorded a strong performance where foreign visitors more than doubled to above 430,000, compared to the 222,765 visitors who came into the country in the same period last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sector is doing vey well. The 2023-2024 will be a full recovery of our 2019 numbers but in terms of earnings, we have already seen this year\u2019s tourism revenues will surpass 2019,\u201d Balala said.<\/p>\n

The ministry targets to have at least 1,027,151 international arrivals this year with earnings expected to increase to Sh172.9 billion, up from Sh146.5 billion last year.<\/p>\n

The accommodation and food service activities sector is estimated to have expanded by 56.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2022, from a contraction of 33.0 per cent in the same quarter of 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sector continued with its upward trajectory after relaxation of the Covid-19 measures,\u201d KNBS says in its latest quarterly report.<\/p>\n

In the first four months (January-April), total arrivals were 305,923 which is more than double the 152, 624 arrivals in the same period last year, Central Bank of Kenya data shows.<\/p>\n

The US remains the top market source for total arrivals with 136,981 of its citizens visiting Kenya last year, where holiday and family visits were the main reasons.<\/p>\n

Uganda was the second top source with 80,067 visitors while Tanzania took the third spot with 74,051 arrivals.<\/p>\n

Others were the UK (53,264), India (42,159), China(31,610), Germany (27,620), Somalia (26,270), Nigeria (25,399) while Rwanda closed the top ten list with 24,665 visitors to Kenya.<\/p>\n

Since the onset of the pandemic, domestic tourists have been key in keeping the sector afloat, a trend expected to continue this year, with Mombasa, Diani and the Maasai Mara remaining top on the list of places being frequented by Kenyans.<\/p>\n

Last year, the domestic market helped increase bed occupancy which went up to a total of 4,138,821 compared to same period in 2020 (2,575,812), recording a recovery of 60.7 per cent.<\/p>\n

Room nights recorded a positive growth with more than 3.1 million ealised as compared to 1.9 million same period in 2020. This is a growth of 55.3 per cent.<\/p>\n

“I believe the domestic market will remain key. I want to thank Kenyans for supporting the tourism sector,\u201d Balala said.<\/p>\n

The ministry is targeting an annual record of five million international tourists by 2025.<\/p>\n

This will be driven by innovation, adoption of technology, product development and up-skilling of personnel, according to the tourism ministry.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Kenya<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Kenya. Kenya is safe for travel, Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has assured the world. This is on the back of a peaceful election period where despite the Presidential results being contested, the country has remained calm with the different sectors of the economy up and running. \u201cKenya is among the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":66523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[6857,7003,544],"class_list":["post-66524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-kenya","tag-kenya"],"yoast_head":"\nKenya is safe for travel \u2013 Balala - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kenya is safe for travel, Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has assured the world. 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