African Press International (API)

Tourism is a growing international trade which Kenya as a country cannot and should never ignore. It is one industry which even the richest of the rich of the countries have already realized that they can never ignore. The top countries in the world in tourism earnings read as follows; USA, Spain, France, Italy and Germany. Each of these earn in terms of over 30 Billion US $ Annually. In terms of visitors annually they read as France, Spain, USA, China and Italy and each receiving over 40 million visitors annually.

In terms of regional sharing of the fortune minting industry, Europe takes the lion share in excess of 50% of the market share. Africa controls a measly 4.4% of the trade. This just indicates how the fortune minting industry is taken seriously by the developed world. Yet Africa with all the attraction, endowment and opportunities is nothing in the trade. Then where is Africa competitive?

Kenya for instance is a country well endowed with beautiful and very attractive natural landscape, beautiful coastline, cultural, strategic placement, wildlife, diverse languages, ecology and so many other factors. How many tourists is she expected to receive this year? Slightly above 1.2 million tourists. Revenues are expected to hit Kshs 54 Billion. Not a bad figure considering where we have come from especially after the horrible and extremely evil Likoni clashes of 1997 and the many negative travel advisories and the wanting infrastructure particularly the road network and an economy which for a while was limping.

Kudos to Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) for the good work it has been doing. Aggressive marketing to various sources of tourists in various part of the world (diversification) and branding of tourists sites such as the Meru National Park in Eastern province has given the industry a new impetus. However more need to be done.

With growing economies and new emerging economic powers such as China, Brazil and India the tourism industry is bound to grow in leaps and bounds. Already it is estimated that outbound travelers from India is set to hit over 16.3 million in 2011 alone. Yet Kenya has a great cultural, diplomatic and trade ties with India. There are many Indian immigrants in Kenya which is a great selling point of the hospitality of Kenyans and an open society to boot.

The root linkage emerging from the construction of Kenya Uganda railway in the turn of last century is a great historical link which shows a strong roots and links with the sub-continent. The emerging middle class in India is a group worth targeting. Remember about one tenth of the over 6 Billion people in the world today are Indians of ages below 35 who are increasingly growing into middle class, what with their attainment of high education and their superb exploits in the fields of Information Communication Technology (ICT) especially with leverage on Business Processes Outsourcing (BPO’s).

The problems bedeviling the industry in Kenya today are to be found in poor infrastructure particularly the road network, insecurity and limited hotel facilities (accommodation) among others. These are issues that can be easily addressed by the government by greater investment in road network, tougher and expansion of the policing force which is better remunerated and motivated as well as incentives for investments. This is an industry which can easily wipe out unemployment in the face of the overwhelmingly beautiful country known as Kenya. Imagine if we received 10 million visitors annually and a good portion of them being high net worth?

There is hope though. The government has been very keen to give incentive meant to spur economic growth. Nonetheless KTB need to be better funded and developed further. Investment in the board by the government has already proven to be highly rewarding. Thus it is very sensible to expect the government to improve the budget for KTB going forward and the ministry of Tourism and Wildlife one of the well funded promoted and protected. It is through this ministry that we can protect the goose which will continue laying the golden eggs.

By API*APN East African Correspondent

Harrison�� Mwirigi�� Ikunda,
P.O. Box 51806,
Nairobi.

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