Kisumu
  16-02-2008
     
  By Leo Odera Omolo.
  
  Kenya has envisaged an ambitious plan to boost tourist after suffering major set back in the sector as a result of post-election violence.
  
  Hotel, beaches and lodges are presently scantily occupied, while visits to the country’s buoyant national game parks have plummeted despite the fact this this should be the peak season.
  
  The violent protests in parts of the country following disagreement over the presidential election results have taken a toll on Kenya’s tourism industry.
  
  According to the managing director of the Kenya Tourist Board, Dr. Ongong’a Achieng’, many foreign visitors took off for fear of their safety, leaving hotel owners and tour operator in a daze.  
  
  Naivasha town which is located 45 miles to the west of the capital, Nairobi, is the popular tourist’s spot which was the worst hit.
  
  Tourism in Kenya has suffered before from bomb blasts and political violence, but the scale of unrest over the last December disputed polls results, which has displaced more than 600,000 people, is unprecedented.
  
  Kenya is earning USD one billion ( Kshs. 70 billion) annually from this sub-sector of the economy. But the ongoing political instability has brought the sector down to its knees.
  
  Hotels on the pristine Indian Ocean beaches where tourism only recently recovered from the impact of the 1998 and 2002 bomb blasts in Nairobi and Mombasa, attacks blamed on al Qaeda terrorists, are also beginning to close and lay off hundreds of workers.  Those that are open have only ten percent occupancy.
   
  Lake Nakuru, another tourists attraction spot, which is located within the outskirts of Nakuru town, is said to be a deserted place. This is an area which was previously very attractive to European tourists.
  
  The adjacent Lake Nakuru game reserve is well stocked with lions, flamingos, African heritage, wild beast, impalas, Buffalos, rhinos and water buck who can be seen grazing magnificently along the water front.
  
  But the tourists have fled, especially the big spenders. The only foreigners frequently patrolling the Lake  Nakuru are members of the press but this category of visitors do not spend much.
  
  The rival sides in the country’s political divide have agreed to try and seek a lasting political solution under the brokerage of former UN Secretary General Dr. Kofi Annan but even if one is found, it will take time for Kenya to draw back tourists on the scale that it did in the past.
  
  Dr. Annan, a world class diplomat par excellence announced yesterday that he had pushed the protagonists to unlock a grid-lock on his on-going negotiation by laying out a roadmap for what he termed “a new government” expected soon to emerge from the initiative.
  
  The diplomat announced key agreements by negotiators despite discouraging reports that the drafting of  the finer details on power-sharing had caused discord between the two teams representing the PNU party and the opposition ODM party, which controls half of the 222 House of parliament.
   
  Tourism, the industry, which has consistently been the country’s top earner of foreign exchange for several years is now operating at a meagre four per cent.
  
  The chairperson of the New Domestic Tourism Council of Kenya Anastanzia Wakesho was recently quoted as saying that the organization has been doing some extra thinking over how domestic travel could be promoted to fill a significant portion of the emerging void once the tension subsides and exploring ways that the sector could be uplifted to ensure that the country does not rely only on the fragile international arm of tourism.
  
  The 27- member council has an ambitious strategies plan through which it hopes to raise the level of domestic tourism to a position that will ultimately equal the contribution from foreign visitors.
  
  In the year 2006, the Kenya Tourism Board noted a significant contribution from the sub-sector. Out of about Ksh. 60 billion revenue generated by tourism in 2006, Ksh. 18 billion arose from the domestic market.
  
  This indicates a worthwhile contribution from the sub-sector that was previously taken for granted. According to Wakesho, the council is, therefore, poised to help harness domestic tourism.
  
  Currently, said Wakesho, about twenty-eight percent of expenses related to the industry go to the government. She believes this can be comfortably reduced to promote holidaying. The status quo cannot be maintained if more Kenyans are expected to travel to tourism sites within the country and if international tourism is wooed back. 
  
  The council, which is headed by Ms. Wakesho is a public-private partnership formed early last year but that was officially invented on November 19, 2007 to help develop and promote domestic tourism.
  
  Apart from far-reaching campaigns to interest more citizens in local travel , the council is intent on supporting home-grown investments in the sector and will pay particular attention to those that are likely to be more attractive to Kenyans with regard to cost.
  ENDS
  Leooderaomolo@yahoo.com