Kenya’s Tourism Earnings for 2008 Expected to Drop to $800m

The Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) has announced that its forecast on tourism earnings for 2008 could drop to 50 billion shillings ($800 million) compared to the 65 billion shillings ($1.4 billion) in 2007.

Addressing a news conference in Nairobi at the weekend, the Managing Director of KTB, Achieng’ Ong’ong’a said the country’s tourism earnings for the first quarter of 2008, have already dropped by almost 42 percent compared to the same period last year dropping to 8 billion shillings ($128 million) compared to 14 billion shillings ($224 million) in 2007.

The sector recorded arrivals of 104,000 tourists for the first quarter in 2008 compared to 315,000 visitors during the same period in 2007, the lowest number recorded since 2004, he said.

“But despite this current scenario, I’m quite optimistic that the sector will fully recover by the first quarter of next year”, said Ongo’ong’a.

The tourism sector was severely affected by the effects of the post election violence, which resulted in most foreign countries issuing security advisories to warn their citizens against traveling to the country.

Source African Press Agency

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