Over Sh870 million is estimated to have
been lost in the past week due to the slump in tourism at the Coast,
Mombasa governor Hassan Joho has said.
Wednesday
governors from Kwale, Kilifi, Tana River, Lamu, Taita Taveta, Kilifi and
Mombasa held talks with UK, Canada, France and the US envoys on how to
reduce the cost of cancellations sparked by recent travel advisories
and revive tourism. They also discussed the challenges affecting
tourism at the Coast.
According to Mr Joho, who
addressed reporters at the Council of Governors offices in Nairobi, more
than 5,000 jobs have been lost after hotels closed or scaled down their
businesses.
Besides the threats posed by terrorism,
Coast hotels have been hit by the traditional low season which lasts
until October when autumn starts in Europe ahead of winter.
Present
at the Press conference were Governors Amason Kingi (Kilifi), Salim
Mvurya (Kwale), Issa Timmami (Lamu) , Hussein Dado (Tana River) and John
Mruttu (Taita-Taveta).
Among the programmes that the
governors and the ambassadors agreed to undertake jointly is
entrepreneurship training for the youth which is expected to make them
self-employed.
The programme will supplement the
concession given earlier this month when President Uhuru Kenyatta
removed VAT on air tickets and offered tax incentives for companies
which pay for their employees’ holidays.
The President also lifted the ban on government institutions holding meetings in hotels.
“The
government, with effect from June 12 in 2014, will allow all corporate
and business entities to pay vacation trip expenses for their staff on
annual leave in Kenya and deduct such expenditures in their taxes,” Mr
Kenyatta said. He spoke a day after 500 British tourists were evacuated
from the South Coast after their Foreign Office issued a travel advisory
to its citizens.
The President said the government
hoped to directly give at least 25,000 Kenyans a chance to go for a
week’s holiday every month at the expense of their employers, bringing
to total more than 300,000 additional Kenyan guests to hotels.
This
was among other moves seeking to return the sector to its former glory.
Others included a reduction in park fees, meant to attract both local
and international tourists.
“All park fees currently
set at Sh7,830 ($90) per non-resident and Sh1,200 per resident guest
shall be reduced to Sh6,960 ($80) and Sh1,000, respectively, effective
June 12, this year,” read Mr Kenyatta’s statement.
The
US, the UK, France and Australia had issued travel advisories warning
their citizens not to travel to some parts of the Coast and Nairobi. As a
result, some British tourists were evacuated with tour operators
arguing that the advisories had increased their insurance costs.
UK tour firms Thomson and First Choice, which had charter flights to Mombasa cancelled the flights until October.
The
Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) has embarked on a campaign to diversity its
tourist source markets to ensure that the sector remains stable even
with fluctuating arrivals from its key markets.
The
top five source markets for Kenya are the United Kingdom with 149,699
arrivals last year, the US (115,636), Italy (79,993), India and Germany
with 64,887 and 60,450 respectively.
Tourist arrivals in Kenya last year dipped by 12 per cent due to insecurity and a decline in services.
The total number of arrivals last year stood at 1.09 million, down from 1.23 million in 2012.
According
to KTB managing director Muriithi Ndegwa, Kenyans can take advantage of
the country’s rich cultural uniqueness and get to know their country
better at the same time promoting domestic tourism.
Meanwhile,
the increase in cases of terror attacks has been blamed on low levels
of security education among citizens and government agents.
The
chairman of the national taskforce on community told a public baraza in
Tiwi, Kwale County, that the problem of insecurity could be eradicated
through thorough security education.
Additional reporting by Farouk Mwabege
Additional reporting by Farouk Mwabege
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