Kenya:Tourism unaffected despite travel advisories

Kenya's Tourism Minister Najib Balala has reiterated that the country's tourism sector has not been affected by the existing travel advisories which were slapped by Western nations. In a statement issued in Nairobi by the Tourism Ministry, Balala re-emphasized that the East African nation's tourism sector was on the right path and growth and termed recent insecurity incidences in the country as unfortunate. "Travel advisories and the introduction of unilateral taxes is what threatens our tourism industry much," said Balala, who is currently leading a delegation of tourism stakeholders and industry players in exhibiting Kenya's tourism products at the World Trade Markets in London. Balala said the travel advisories issued by countries like Britain and the EU countries exacerbate the problem by not providing the real picture on the ground. The minister also told the World Travel Market Ministerial Summit, attended by over 86 tourism ministers from all over the world, that the biggest threat to Kenya's tourism, as in the other long-haul developing nations, is the unilateral introduction of air passenger duty. Balala said the passenger tax which has been introduced under the guise of environmental and climate change has made travel to long haul destinations much more expensive in addition to reducing air travel capacity. For Kenya, Britain remains its No. 1 tourist source market, from where Kenya received about 170,000 visitors last year. The ministerial summit agreed that countries issuing travel advisories need to get clear pictures and consultations with relevant governments before making such decisions. "Travel advisories and the introduction of unilateral taxes is what threatens our tourism industry much more than the isolated insecurity incidences," Balala said. He noted that advisories are normally crafted by the Foreign Offices in respective countries and most of the time no due consideration is given to their impacts on tourism which is one of the world's growth industries that supports millions of people in terms of employment and livelihoods, besides promoting global socio-cultural understandings and respect among the global communities. In support of these sentiments, the ministers called on the UNWTO to consider possibilities of developing a parallel travel advisories system within its system to counter the foreign offices advisories by providing an accurate and timely updates on security and safety details of the various destinations. This way, he said, countries will be able to guarantee the safety and security of the tourist at all times and other national agents will be in a position to respond to the needs of the tourism industry as a national priority. Tourism is a vital sector for the entire East African trading bloc and, as a key foreign exchange earners, has contributed immensely to the development of the region. Besides foreign exchange, the industry also creates thousands of employment opportunities for East Africans.