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Kenya |
ECONOMY
Kenya’s tourist industry is going through a rough patch,
but all is not
doom and gloom
A born optimist and undoubtedly, an accomplished hand in the world of tourism, Mr. Gerald Macharia Mwangi, the manager of the Kenya’s renowned Amboseli Serena Lodge, has somewhat changed his approach these days when considering tourism. Where he once exploded with excitement whenever he spoke of the prospects for tourism in Kenya, these days his statements are guarded and reflective.
On the future prospects of the once world famous Amboseli National Park, for instance, and how neighbouring Tanzania to the south is trying to nibble at the park’s tourism prospects, Mwangi ponders awhile before suddenly coming to life. «Amboseli», he cautiously states, «will regain its former glory. We should not be competing with Tanzania and Uganda but should work out ways of tackling more serious threats such as South Africa and Egypt».
Still, even with this optimistic pronouncement, one cannot miss Mwangi’s guarded tone. And not without reason because there was a time when tourists would scramble to Kenya, to experience the country’s diverse animals habitats and contrasting ecosystems. Kenya was home to scores of mammals. These included the big «5»: Elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo and leopard. Also, hundreds of species od birds such as the African fish eagle, pygmy falcon and kingfisher. Bed occupancy was high in most hotels and in many instances, bookings to the country’s tourist destinations had to be made well in advance.
Tourist industry badly hit
Not any more. The tourism industry in Kenya, despite its immense possibilities has taken such a severe battering in the past few years, that many stakeholders are worried over whether things will ever be the same again.
This downturn in the sector, manifested in the greatly reduced tourist arrivals is attributed to many factors. The main reason is the stiff competition that Kenya now faces from emerging tourist destinations with similar packages such as South Africa. Other reasons include poor infrastructure, notably the Nairobi-Mombasa highway and the negative publicity for the country arising from the widely publicised incidences of insecurity, such as the inter-ethnic clashes in the Rift Valley and Coast provinces two years ago.
Since the clashes at the Coast, Mombasa, the province’s principal town has witnessed the closure of a many hotels, while others barely survive after operating below capacity for a very long time. The result has been redundancies, salary cuts, and closures. Incidentally, the rising insecurity in Kenya coincided with the rejuvenation of the northern Tanzanian tourist circuit of Ngorongoro crater, Serengeti plains and Lake Manyara — efforts which were augmented by high-level and concerted tourism promotion.
Is Kenya’s tourism industry likely to experience a resurgence soon? Certainly not, unless the country comes up quickly with diversified and innovative holiday packages. Many stakeholders in the tourism industry feel that if Kenya is to face up to the intense competition, she must shift from the strategies she used in the 1960s and early 1970s, when Kenya was the only East and Central African country having an established, organised tourism industry.
Those were the days when advertisements promising «spectacular African cabaret shows» and «5-star accommodation boasting magnificent, hand-carved four poster beds, colour television receiving CNN, BBC and MNET, and offering a range of lavish amenities», attracted the holiday-maker. Companies offering sightseeing excursions to the Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru and Amboseli or deep-sea fishing and scuba diving, were sure to attract tourists.
The reality is, however, that things have changed a great deal since then. In the intervening period, new, long-distance tourist destinations have come on to the scene threatening the future of the tourism industry in countries like Kenya.
There’s a wide choice of destinations available, these days. In the Caribbean alone, there are more than 20 islands to choose from. There’s also destinations such as Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. And Kenya now stands to lose almost half its tourist market to South Africa.
Experts in the travel industry say that Kenya’s Tourist Board (KTB) must be given a breath of fresh air. The KTB is a parastatal formed in 1997, to «market» Kenya locally and abroad, after it became apparent that the Ministry of Tourism had neither the will nor the personnel for the task. So far, limited finances have hampered its operations, forcing its chairman, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta (a son of Kenya’s first President, Jomo Kenyatta), to appeal for US $2.1 million in order to launch an aggressive marketing and public awareness campaign to get the industry back on its feet.
Fortunately, the picture is not all one of gloom and doom. Kenya, many tourism experts agree, is a very solid tourism product if well marketed. One can see this clearly in the fact that despite the drawbacks of recent years, the industry is once again beginning to look up, thanks largely to «millennium visits» coupled with promotional efforts by the government and the private sector. A good example is Amboseli, for years considered a «must» for tourists visiting Kenya. In 1998, Amboseli recorded an all-time low of 62,900 visits. By August last year, the park had attracted 60 per cent advance bookings for the millennium visits! Kenya’s other great advantage in the region is that its neighbours such as Uganda and Tanzania, still lag far behind in terms of infrastructure, forcing many tourists to those countries to transit through Kenya.
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