Kenya’s tourism earnings tumbled 32% in the first half of this year from the same period in 2007 after a bloody post-election crisis caused massive cancellations, the tourism board said on Wednesday.
At least 1 300 people were killed and 300 000 displaced in the East African country after President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed December re-election set off ethnic violence.
The Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) said tourist arrivals dropped 36% to 561 313 in the first six months compared with 873 433 in the same period last year. Earnings dropped to 23,12-billion Kenyan shillings.
However, KTB managing director Achieng Ongong’a gave an upbeat assessment of the way the industry was recovering.
”In the first half of the year 2008, the tourism industry managed to weather the post-election skirmishes to stay on its feet,” Ongong’a told a news conference.
”We expect to continue with recovery activity until the end of 2009. Assuming political stability is maintained, we expect to have recovered to 2007 levels by the end of winter 2009/10” he said.
In April, the KTB said full year earnings could fall to 50-billion shillings from 65,4-billion shillings in 2007. The board had forecast a 10% increase in earnings in the first half before the post-election violence in the first quarter.
The board has spent 323-million shillings on recovery efforts and plans to use up another 430-million financed by the government and a further 628-million funded by the European Union by the end of the year. – Reuters