After losing over $140-million in tourism revenues in the first quarter of 2008 due to post-election violence,  Kenya’s beleaguered tourism industry seems to be on a slow, but steady rebound.
“Everything is completely back to normal in and around Mombasa,” says Jake Grieves Cook, spokesman for the Kenya Tourism Federation (KTF). “The tourism facilities and infrastructure were not affected and even during the post-election crisis we had thousands of tourists staying in all our beach resorts without any problems.”
Wendy Goutier, Product & Contracting Executive (Indian Ocean Beaches & East Africa) for Thompsons Holidays, agrees that there is strong interest from South African travellers in the area that has become known for its idyllic beaches, family-friendly resorts, scuba diving and game-fishing.
“The destination remains a popular one and we have seen a significant increase in requests since the destination has stabilised,” says Goutier. “During the problem times we still had requests coming through and passengers carried on travelling.”
Key to the tourism recovery has been the lifting of travel advisories by European countries and the United States: “All our leading source markets in North America and Europe have now removed their travel advisory against travel to Kenya,” says Grieves Cook, with the US ambassador to Kenya even issuing an open letter encouraging Americans to visit the country.
Opinion is divided though on when tourism numbers will return to normal. Grieves Cook is bullish that within the next few months arrivals will return to pre-election levels: “For the second half of this year bookings are holding up and it looks likely that they will be close to last year’s figures.
Other operators are more cautious though. “We have not struggled to sell Mombasa and continue to market the destination,” says Goutier. “Forward figures are not as good as they were last year, however we will be pushing the destination and we hold additional room allotments for the peak periods.”
However, Glenn Lewington, Kenya Airways’ General Sales Manager in South Africa also believes that passenger numbers could be close to pre-election levels by the end of the year: “Passenger numbers are recovering quickly… I would say six to eight months for a full recovery.”
Air access remains an issue though, and the lack of a direct flight from South Africa – passengers are currently routed via Nairobi – is hindering the recovery of the popular beach resorts in and around Mombasa.
“If Kenya Airways had a direct flight to Mombasa that would definitely help,” says David Stogdale, Managing Director of Heritage Management, which operates the Voyager Beach Resort north of Mombasa.
However, Kenya Airways says there are no concrete plans for this route to be reinstated: “We no longer fly to Mombasa direct as it was not viable in the low season,” says Lewington. “We are looking at Mombasa direct in the December, January peak season…. but the decision to put the flight on has not been taken as of yet.”
A joint marketing campaign by Kenya Airways and the Kenya Tourism Board is set to help the destination recover further, and educational trips for travel agents are on the cards. Thompsons Holidays is also planning a ‘destination university’ on Mombasa for SA agents in the second half of 2008, and the operator has expanded their ‘Value Vacations’ packages to include both Mombasa and Malindi.
“The brand name is damaged and it’s going to take time for volumes to return, but there is an enormous amount of goodwill towards Kenya,” says Stogdale. “We’ve bounced back before and we will certainly do so again”.
» This article originally appeared in Travel Industry Review .
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