Kenya sees recovery in tourism sector: minister
Tourists take a look at animals at the Masai Mara game park in Kenya
Kenyan tourism is recovering from the post-election crisis at the start of 2008 and visitor numbers this year could top 1 million, the country’s tourism minister was quoted on Monday as saying.
Ranked as the third most important source of hard currency for east Africa’s biggest economy, the sector crashed 18 months ago due to political and tribal violence that cut full year earnings by 19 percent.
“Following successful marketing campaigns in Europe and Asia among other continents, tourism has now bounced back as tourist arrivals are on the increase,” the Daily Nation newspaper quoted Tourism Minister Najib Balala as saying.
He said domestic tourism had improved significantly and that the number of foreign visitors could rise to 1 million from last year’s 729,000. He said the introduction in November of new charter flights from Europe would also help drive business.
Hoteliers say the global economic downturn has caused a jump in short lead-time bookings.
its exciting to know that kenya has recovered fast after the war and their minister has managed to boast the wildlife to make good money…..makes you wonder wat Ghana is doing about tourism…considering the fact that we haven’t had any wars recently.