Tourism and Wildlife Permanent Secretary Rebecca Nabutola said the sector was working on marketing initiatives to redeem the waning image of the country and restore it as an attractive tourism destination.
Chairman of the Kenya Tourism Federation Peter Karanja said the sector had earmarked Shs1.2 billion for the endeavour to attract a substantial number of International arrivals.
He said the country had a lot of competitors who were currently taking advantage of the pandemonium in Kenya . “Tourists have opted to shift their loyalty to these destinations instead of coming to our beautiful sites,” he said.
Speaking to an informal gathering of Kenya Tourism Sector leaders of Nabutola said they intend to take advantage of the forthcoming Inter national Tourist Body trade fair in Berlin Germany to re-launch Kenya in the eyes of the International market.
“We will have the opportunity to assure safety to potential visitors by letting them know Kenya is not on fire. We know tourism has being adversely affected and we will ensure our economy recovers,” he affirmed.
She said the media should assist in recovering the country glory. “We would like journalists to support us by highlighting issues objectively and let their viewers, readers and listeners know the positive sides of our country. Recently we witnessed a colourful wedding ceremony here in our country of a foreign couple who were accompanied by 17 guests. These are some of the stories the media should cover,” she said
Kenya Tourism Federation Spokesman Jake-Grieves Cook said the sector has lost an average of Shs 4 billion per month following the skirmishes.
He said at the eruption of the violence in late December over 40,000 tourists had arrived in the country before Christmas but negative media reports and travel advisories slapped by certain governments caused the present decline.
“The ugly scenes on some television networks and negative media reports coupled with travel advisories have greatly contributed to the decreased number of tourists since those who were keen in visiting Kenya got scared,” he argued.
Jake however was optimistic that things would shortly return to normal to enable the sector maintain last year’s financial record saying he was happy that governments of key markets such as French, Germany and Switzerland had already lifted the travel advisories.
“Last year we had over 1 million inter national tourists visit the country. This was a big boost to the country’s economy considering that the government made on average 150 US dollars per visitor in terms of Visa fees, airport taxes, parking fees among other levies,” he confirmed.
Others present during the function were Kenya Association of Tour Operators chairman, Duncan Muriuki, Chief Executive Officer Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers & Caterers, Mike Macharia and the Corporate Affairs and Public Relations manager Kenya Tourism Organization Rose Kwena.
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Tourism and Wildlife Permanent Secretary Rebecca Nabutola said the sector was working on marketing initiatives to redeem the waning image of the country and restore it as an attractive tourism destination.
