Lack of quality hotels hurting tourism, says World Bank report

English point Marina, one of the best tourist facilities in the country. The complex houses a 26-room hotel, spa, gym, a five star international marina, water sports centre, restaurants and an underground parking for about 200 vehicles. A shortage of premium conference facilities and high quality restaurants has held back the growth of tourism in the country, a new report says. FILE 

In Summary

• The Bank says that for the sector to keep up with the success it achieved in the past, the country must invest in constant innovation and diversification of both products and markets.
  Human resource development.

 

By CHARLES WOKABI
More by this Author

A shortage of premium conference facilities and high quality restaurants has held back the growth of tourism in the country, a new report says.

Released last week, the World Bank’s latest Kenya Economic Update also cites high taxes, corruption and infrastructure challenges such as “unreliable communications and high cost of electricity”, as other key factors undermining growth in the sector that remains  one of the country’s top foreign exchange earners.

“Policy rules and regulations in Kenya have created a favourable environment for tourism, but the lack of property rights continues to undermine the sector’s revenue contribution and investment,” the report titled ‘Reinvigorating growth with a dynamic financial sector’ reads.

The Bank says that for the sector to keep up with the success it achieved in the past, the country must invest in constant innovation and diversification of both products and markets.
Human resource development.

“Despite these problems, tourism has been successful in Kenya. Sustaining this success requires preservation of existing tourism resources, human resource development in the tourism industry, and social and environment sustainability,” the report adds.

According to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the number of tourism arrivals in 2012 declined by 2.3 per cent to 1.23 million compared to the 1.26 million visitors who landed in the country in the previous year.

Slow recovery of the sector depressed the overall economy in the second quarter of 2013, KNBS said in its quarterly economic update.

Statistics indicates that the hotels and restaurants contracted 11.4 per cent in the second quarter, against a 2.9 per cent growth over similar period in 2012.

Economic slowdown

“The economic slowdown experienced in the first quarter of 2013 spilled over into the second quarter…the low bookings were mainly linked to uncertainties over the country’s general elections held in March this year,” wrote KNBS.

World Bank, in its report, attributes the drop to the ongoing global recession and terrorism and political instability experienced in the period.

“Mombasa Republican Council following the

March 2013 elections contributed to the 12.2 per cent decline in tourism during the first half of 2013,” ‘the report says.

Economic pillars

Tourism is a key pillar of the national economy, contributing more than ten per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product and providing a source of livelihood to millions of Kenyans.

It is also one of the economic pillars under the national development blueprint, the Vision 2030.