Kirera Mwiti @PeopleDailyKe
The number of international tourists visiting the country is expected to hit 2.1 million by the end of the year with over 900,000 visitors having toured the country ahead of the high season.
The rise in the numbers has been attributed to improved marketing, emergence of new markets and new tourism destinations.
This emerged when stakeholders met in Naivasha to formulate a Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) which will be used to measure the impact of tourism sector to the country’s economy.
Acting Tourism Research Institute Chief Executive Officer David Gitonga, said the country earned Sh157 billion from over two million international visitors last year.
“Already over 900,000 international tourists have visited the country and our projections are that this will rise to over 2.1 million as the high peak season is ahead of us,” he said. Gitonga said the Tourism Satellite Account will ensure the investors and stakeholders had latest data on time to help them prepare and market their businesses.
He said the project was designed to capture all the aspects of tourism activities with a view to bringing out the true value of the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) among other indicators.
“The development of TSA is being done based on the methodological framework developed by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation,” he said.
Economic commission
Manyara, from UN economic commission for Africa said that the project would be carried out in six months, adding that this would make Kenya the fourth country to have a TSA.
He said that already South Africa, Botswana and Rwanda had the satellite account which would help in policy formulation and measure direct impact to the GDP.
“Currently, Africa contributes to 4.5 per cent of tourists in the world and the TSA will market the East Africa region so that number of tourists can rise from the current 5.8 million to 35 million by 2024,”
Manyara said Kenya was currently targeting more visitors from Nigeria and Egypt which were now new tourism markets. Tourism Finance Corporation Managing Director Orumoi Jonah said the players in the sector had continued to invest heavily mainly in the counties.
