- Title: Kenyan tourism employees share COVID-linked pain and plans
- Date: 29th September 2021
- Summary: TSAVO WEST NATIONAL PARK, KENYA (SEPTEMBER 21, 2021) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** DRONE SHOT OF NGULIA SAFARI LODGE (MUTE) VARIOUS OF TOURISTS WATCHING ELEPHANTS AT A WATERING HOLE IN FRONT OF THE HOTEL VARIOUS OF BLIND MASSAGE THERAPIST, MARION MINAYO, WORKING WITH A CLIENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) MASSAGE THERAPIST, MARON MINAYO, SAYING: "Last year we did not have a business, so we did not have massages. I only did maybe one or two a day, but now it has picked up. I can do up to six massages per day." TSAVO WEST NATIONAL PARK, KENYA (SEPTEMBER 24, 2021) (REUTERS) NGULIA SAFARI LODGE MANAGER, RONALD SIMIYU, WALKING NEXT TO THE POOL ‘WELCOME’ SIGN AT LODGE ENTRANCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) NGULIA SAFARI LODGE MANAGER, RONALD SIMIYU, SAYING: "The revenue that we were actually drawing from international clients declined almost by 80 percent. This forced us to put our staff members on a rotational schedule, whereby some of them were not fully on duty and because some of them were not fully on duty, this actually affected them." TSAVO WEST NATIONAL PARK, KENYA (SEPTEMBER 23, 2021) (REUTERS) FULL MOON VARIOUS OF TOURISTS TAKING PICTURES OF A LEOPARD VARIOUS OF LEOPARD (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOURIST, DAVID NESKRABAL, SAYING: "The experience here was great, we have visited multiple safari parks like Tsavo East, Tsavo West, and Amboseli. We have also been to Mombasa, we have the main hotel there, we will be back there next week. We have seen on safari the whole ‘Big Five', we have seen the leopard today." TSAVO WEST NATIONAL PARK, KENYA (SEPTEMBER 24, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SUNRISE VARIOUS OF TOURISTS IN RESTAURANT TOURISTS BEING SERVED AT HOTEL'S RESTAURANT TSAVO WEST NATIONAL PARK, KENYA (SEPTEMBER 21, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MINAYO MASSAGING CLIENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) MASSAGE THERAPIST, MARION MINAYO, SAYING: "I would wish after this coronavirus (pandemic) guests to be coming a lot, the way they were coming before the coronavirus. We were very busy and we were happy." (SOUNDBITE) (English) NGULIA SAFARI LODGE MANAGER, RONALD SIMIYU, SAYING: "We can be able to promote both international and domestic tourism so that we can also diversify over-reliance on the international market by bringing in all the people in the country so that they can visit the lodges and with that, we can be able to draw a lot of revenue." TSAVO WEST, KENYA (SEPTEMBER 21, 2021) (REUTERS) TOURISTS ON AN OPEN-TOP TOUR VAN TOURISTS LOOKING AT A RHINO RHINO VARIOUS OF GIRAFFES
- Embargoed: 13th October 2021 13:10
- Keywords: Kenya's tourism sector Tsavo East and West National Parks blind massage therapist
- Location: TSAVO WEST NATIONAL PARK, KENYA
- City: TSAVO WEST NATIONAL PARK, KENYA
- Country: Kenya
- Topics: Africa,Human-Led Feature,Human-Led Stories
- Reuters ID: LVA001EWRTKK9
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The Ngulia Safari Lodge was built in Kenya's Tsavo area in 1968. It was the first of its kind to open in the Tsavo West National Park which is famous for the two "man-eating lions" that preyed on railroad workers in the late 1800s.
But the region's rich history and popularity as a safari destination has not spared businesses based here - like the Ngulia Lodge - from suffering in recent years.
Tourism accounted for 8.2% of Kenya's GDP in 2019, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, much of it from visits to nature parks, but has fallen drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kenya’s tourism sector lost close to $1 billion in revenue between January and October in 2020, when according to a tourism ministry report, numbers of foreign visitors fell by two-thirds.
Marion Minayo is a blind massage therapist who has been employed at Ngulia for seven years. She says she used to book about 10 clients per day.
"Last year we did not have a business, so we did not have massages. I only did maybe one or two a day, but now it has picked up. I can do up to six massages per day," Minayo said.
The industry is estimated to employ over 2 million people.
"The revenue that we were actually drawing from international clients declined almost by 80 percent. This forced us to put our staff members on a rotational schedule, whereby some of them were not fully on duty and because some of them were not fully on duty, this actually affected them," said Robert Simiyu, the lodge’s manager.
From safaris in the Maasai Mara and other world-beating wildlife reserves to holidays on pristine Indian Ocean beaches, Kenya’s tourism industry contributes 10 percent of its economic output.
Kenya, which welcomed 2 million visitors in 2019, only got 300,000 visitors in the first half of this year, the tourism ministry also said.
"I would wish after this coronavirus (pandemic) guests to be coming a lot, the way they were coming before the coronavirus. We were very busy and we were happy," Minayo added.
Her manager thinks the country’s strategy of marketing the country’s holiday spots to its own citizens must continue in order to buffer the sector from similar disruption in the future.
"We can be able to promote both international and domestic tourism, so that we can also diversify over-reliance on the international market by bringing in all the people in the country so that they can visit the lodges and with that, we can be able to draw a lot of revenue," Simiyu said.
Kenya’s tourism minister Najib Balala said in July that equal access to COVID-19 vaccines is key to rebuilding Africa’s devastated tourism industries.
About 21 million jobs have been lost in the sector across the continent since the start of the pandemic.
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