Kenya and Tanzania, the two East African neighbours, have to have cordial relations if they are to advance on the economic front with each other.
The evidence for this lies in the fact that Tanzania has dislodged the US as Kenya’s leading tourism top source market despite the incessant tensions between the two countries.
In September, Tanzania became the biggest tourist source market for Kenya due to its reduced Covid-19 lockdown measures.
Read: How the EAC is promoting economic growth while fighting a pandemic
For Kenya, the tourism sector has received a beating due to the virus spread hampering arrivals from the world’s biggest economies. Kenya categorised US travellers as ‘Covid-19 high-risk’ which led to a decreased number of tourists from the US which was also in its election season. With the new stringent measures for high-risk countries, many travellers from the US were forced to either cancel or postpone their travel to East Africa’s investment hub.
Data from the Tourism Research Institute (TRI) showed that the purpose of visits was conferences and exhibitions, meetings, incentives (44.96 per cent) and visiting families and friends at 29.90 per cent. A sizeable number at 16.50 per cent were vacationers while 5.4 per cent transited through Kenya.
Just a month earlier, Tanzania could not even feature in the top 30 source market of visitors to Kenya but data shows that it now leads with 4,309 visitors followed by Uganda (3,812) and the US (3,458). The other East African country that did Kenya well was Uganda which jumped from position three in August to position two in September.
Other source markets were Pakistan (176), Norway (167), Turkey (155), Swaziland (110), Spain (95), Ghana (83), Philippines (70) and South Africa (68).
Kenya’s tourism sector was hit hard after the country saw a dusk-to-dawn (7 am to 5 am) curfew imposed which went hand-in-hand with the banning of international and local passenger flights in March. Major cities of Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kilifi and Kwale counties suffered from restricted movement in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.
Despite this setback, the country saw its capital, Nairobi, voted Africa’s Leading Business Travel Destination in 2020 beating contestants like Ghana’s Accra, Cairo in Egypt, South Africa’s Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria, as well as Lagos, Nigeria. This is the third time Nairobi has won the award having taken it in 2016, 2019 and now 2020. As such, the country should capitalise on this to endear travellers to the country which boasts a host of sights and sounds as well as cuisines and the arts.
While Nairobi took the top honours for a travel destination, the iconic Kenyatta International Convention Centre was awarded Africa’s leading meetings and conference destination at this year’s World Travel Awards for the second year running.
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The East African Community (EAC) should also utilise this opportunity to reap the maximum benefits from the exposure the awards have given the region.
Already, tourism contributes an estimated 8.1 per cent to the EAC bloc’s GDP. Export earnings stand at 17.2 per cent of the region’s earnings while employment contributes 7.1 per cent.
The tourism sector in the region is poised to be hit by a 92 per cent slowdown in cash flows due to reduced international travel, according to a report by the East Africa Business Council (EABC).
To tap into the potential the region’s tourism companies are working on marketing the region as a single tourism destination. This is as a part of a recovery plan for the virus-hit industry. Officials in the sector say that the move will involve developing special tour packages for the region which will feature among others, airfares, popular attractions and accommodation.
The East Africa Tourism Platform (EATP) says that the plan is aimed at reviving the industry which was badly hit by the COVID-19 crisis. The goal is to restore the economic sector to pre-pandemic levels.
By seeking strength in numbers, the region’s tourism sector players are banking on an expanded offering covering the six partner states of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. Of the six EAC partner states, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda have already earned the World Travel and Tourism Council’s health and safety approval and are designated as safe travel destinations.
The EAC notes that member countries are interested in diversifying the sources of tourism and adding new ones like the countries in East, South and South-East Asia as the new members of the EU have done.
Tourism is an important industry in the EAC countries whose principal sources of tourists is the European Union (EU), especially Germany, Italy and France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The region’s steady growth as a tourism destination necessitates the creation and provision of world-class tourist facilities urgently. For prospective investors, this offers immense opportunities.
