KENYA: Kenyan tourism sector faces a decline in arrivals after the recent deadly terrorist attack in Nairobi

Record ID: 354024

  • Title: KENYA: Kenyan tourism sector faces a decline in arrivals after the recent deadly terrorist attack in Nairobi
  • Date: 2nd October 2013
  • Summary: MOMBASA, KENYA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BEACH HOTEL VARIOUS OF TOURISTS SUNBATHING BY THE POOL MAASAI MARA, KENYA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TOURISTS WATCHING THE WILDEBEEST MIGRATION
  • Embargoed: 17th October 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Crime,Business,Economy
  • Reuters ID: LVA4XOH7PB38O09CT1I1G7AJ8ZX
  • Story Text: The recent terrorist attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya is set to compound what has been an already bad year for the Kenyan tourism industry which was hit by an almost 10 percent drop in visitor arrivals in the first half of 2013 due to fears of poll-related violence.
    Although Kenyan police assisted by U.S., Israeli and European experts are still poring over the partially wrecked mall building, the death toll from the attack still stands at 67. Five attackers were also killed.
    The Nairobi attack was the worst in Kenya since the U.S. Embassy was bombed in the capital by al Qaeda in 1998 that killed more than 200 people, mostly Kenyans and the 2002 bombing of the Israeli-owned Paradise hotel in Mombasa.
    "When you compare the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year tourism was already down 10 percent not very difficult to know why with the elections people stayed away. So, tourism is coming from a soft spot anyway. Now we live in a 24-hour news media world it is like an echo chamber and of course with the Westgate events we have been at the centre of that news media cycle for a number of days now and it is practically impossible for tourism not to be taking a punch," said Sub Sahara Africa Financial Analyst, Aly Khan Sachu.
    The sector had braced for a traditionally robust second half of the year, which fetches twice as much revenue as the first due to winter in the European and America market.
    The risk to tourism was the first concern government officials expressed after the attack that also left at least 18 foreigners.
    The U.S government promptly issued an updated travel advisory to its citizens urging them to "evaluate their personal security situation in light of continuing and recently heightened threats from terrorism" in the east African country.
    Although not mentioning the sector specifically, government officials went on the offensive, asking the United States to lift the advisory "as a friend of Kenya", adding that the country remained calm though in a state of heightened security.
    Tourism is one of the leading foreign exchange earner in Kenya along tea and horticulture, generating 14 percent of the East African nation's gross domestic product and employs some 12 percent of its workforce.
    Kenya is Africa's fifth largest tourist destination, welcoming approximately 1.8 million visitors each year. Nearly half come from Britain and Europe, while visitors from the United States became an increasing share of the total during the past two years, according to Kenya's Ministry of Tourism.
    "It is going to be a weak second half also bear in mind that second half earnings typically tourism has a big skew-the tourism industry makes more money in the second half nearly twice as much as the first half, so that really makes it a very very tricky situation right now, I got to call it lower - I think it is going to be very difficult for it to rebound really quickly, Mombasa is suffering already," said Aly Khan The anticipated toll on tourism is expected to magnify the decline in tourist arrivals caused by the massive fire that gutted Kenya's main airport's arrivals terminal in August.
    The rebuke for Washington was delivered at a time when Kenya's government faced intense questions from its own public about whether it had received advance intelligence warnings of the deadly strike against the mall.
    At the weekend, major Kenyan newspapers reported that the country's intelligence services had warned of a possible attack in Nairobi, with the Wastage mall as one likely target.
    "In situations like this you got to enhance security, the worst risk for the tourism industry right now is a recurrence, an event that recurs. If that happens then all bets are off and I think that hits the Kenyan market assets very badly because then people will start thinking this was not a one time event, this is now a new kind of normal and that would really hurt the tourism industry," added Aly Khan Claiming the mall attack that extended into a four-day siege, al-Shabaab said it acted in revenge against Kenyan troops who have been fighting it in neighboring Somalia for two years.
    Kenya is seen as a key ally in the fight against violent Islamist extremism in the Horn of Africa and Kenyan troops form part of an internationally-backed African peacekeeping force in Somalia that has put, al-Shabaab on the defensive.
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