Tourism is the second largest sector in foreign currency earning (20% of GDP). In spite of this 1997-98 were very bad years for the sector. What is still the Importance of the tourism sector in the Kenyan economy, and what are you doing to keep it up?
I am glad that you brought this question up, because tourism continues to be a very important sector. Nevertheless, at the moment as you rightly said, its agriculture then tourism. It used to be tourism first, but it has been overtaken by agriculture. We have as you probably have seen or heard while you are in Kenya, a very strong infrastructure in tourism, in terms of parks and beautiful beaches. We have a product here complete with infrastructure. In fact, it is estimated that they can take in about 2 million tourists a year.
Kenya's international image has been badly damaged by a number of negative events. How are you trying to improve this image, and what effect did the 1998 bombing of the American Embassy in Nairobi had on tourism?
First of all, let me just say that the incidents that have happened here can happen anywhere. That incident in Likoni in 1996, for example has been a major issue in every interview and every meeting I have had. I have just returned from N.Y. and from what I was able to gather is that this attitude that has been talked about for the last few years has now changed. We have learned this publicly from the media, particularly the foreign media. They were highlighting what happened forgetting the good things within the country. Kenya is safe, I can't think of any other safer place. If you look at all the visitors that have come here, we have had only one incident in all these years.
After the incident of 1996, the Kenyan Government moved in and started the tourist police, which is patrolling our land to make sure that visitors are safe. We have rangers in the parks. Rangers have been put on alert and are patrolling much more seriously to make sure that all of our 59 parks, including game parks and marine parks are safe. 10% of the country is reserved for wildlife. This is a very large area in which game rangers are armed and mobile. They are quick to react to any incident. We have not taken the question of security lightly in spite of the fact that we have only had a few incidents. But then there were a few clashes within Kenya during election time, it can actually happen anywhere in height of elections. However, that is something that happened in 1997 and which did not affect visitors at all.
We pride ourselves as a safe destination, although we have had a few incidences but nothing really alarming. We had a small one about a month ago in Amboseli, where the police moved in very quickly and arrested the offenders. The arrested will be charged in court. All the items they had stolen were recovered and returned to the owners.
The sector is presently under a recession. How is your ministry trying to attract more tourists to Kenya? What are the prospects for 1999 and the year 2000?
Not just the sector, but the whole economy is suffering. Nevertheless, since the sector contributes a lot to the economy, and the tourism sector is suffering, the economy automatically also suffers. But it is not only Kenya. I think its a worldwide recession. However, it is probably felt in countries like ours much more than in the past. The Western World, Europe and America are also somewhat hit, but visitors still keep on coming to Kenya. We have the Kenya Tourist Board, which a Marketing Board/Agency set up by the Government to coordinate all the stake-holders, tour operators, hotel keepers and travel agents to promote this sector. Europe is our main focus, since most of the tourists come from Europe, Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden etc. You know Americans are good rich spenders. Even though the distance to America is great, it does not matter if you are a nature lover. | Recently, the unparalleled Kenyan option, is receiving more and more competition from other African countries such as Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa. What effect do you think this will have in the long term? How are you preparing to face these competitors?
No two countries are alike. I think you have to experience Kenya to take advantage of its singularity. For example our parks, the Masai Mara, Samburu, Amboseli, are unique. Other Countries offer alternative destinations. However, I think our product here is unique, and I would like to believe that the visitors who want to come to Kenya also know the hospitality of this country. We know that the Masai Mara is the only one in its class. For these reasons we do not consider ourselves as South Africa.
We are also have a different approach, from our point of view we need to have a co-operation between the region and our country. We market the region collectively, which is why we do not consider them a serious threat for our attractions.
What we are doing also is that we are diversifying our products. The trend worldwide is eco-tourism. Not all 59 parks in Kenya are really visited, so we want to open up other areas particularly for nature lovers, eco-tourists, culture-tourists, mountain climbers, etc. For instance, most climbers climb Mt Kenya from Loitokitok from the Kenyan side.
We also want to encourage cruise tourism. So far we only have one or two nice cruise ships. We hope that investors will visit the area and if they are holiday markers, they probably can cruise from the coast down to South Africa and back. We expect our new products to attract a certain clientele. We hope to get into the next millennium quite happy increasing our share.
The WTO expects that Africa to receive about 36 million tourists, and Kenya wants a share of 2 million. Our share right now is about 1 million. The latest statistics show we probably have 1.2 or1.3 million.
What is the tourism sector doing to address environmental issues?
To make sure that wildlife is not disturbed in their natural environment is an area of concern particularly to environmentalists and conservationists. The Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) makes sure before they license anyone to drive in the park that they will not harass animals just because someone wants to takes photographs. For instance, if they see a pack of lions resting, they should be left alone. That is the kind of thing that should be discouraged. I just attended a conference in New York, a UN meeting called `Our Products', like the ones we have particularly in the parks to sustain. They stressed that there are other areas that are also very important, such as to involve the local people. Actually the park is owned by the local authority, the county council. They get revenue between the KWS and them. They take care of it, the even take care of the animals. As you probably know there is conflict between animals and humans for the use of the land.
What would be your last message?
We welcome everyone to Kenya. This is the home of Safari. Everyone knows the word safari. We should have put a patent on it, since this is our word. Now it is being used by every Tom, Dick and Harry. There is no safari anywhere else except here. Others are just imitations. It is like jewelry, if you want to wear gold, you have to come here. So this is the land of real safaris, the country is beautiful, with a diversified ecological range from the Indian Ocean right to the top of the mountains, the highlands. We really are trying to think globally. Tourism is one way of spreading wealth and development worldwide. It is an easy way with a very big impact. |
