A leading Kenyan hotel chain has trashed government figures on tourist arrivals in the country, saying violent attacks by armed groups have scared away far more tourists than the authorities cared to admit.
The Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) on Friday said that arrivals in the first four months of the year were down by 4 percent from a year earlier to 381,000.
TPS Eastern Africa, which operates the Serena chain of hotels, luxury lodges and tented camps, said in a weekend statement that its own analysis for the first half of the year showed business on the important coastal tourism circuit fall by 30-50 percent from last year. Inland trips to destinations such as to the Maasai Mara game reserve and Mount Kenya fell by 20 percent.
Tourism is a leading source of foreign exchange for Kenya's economy and the government has been trying to salvage and encourage the sector to grow and create jobs.
An attack last year on a Nairobi shopping mall, followed by a series of gun and grenade attacks as well as numerous security scares and persistent state of insecurity have prompted several countries to warn their citizens against travelling to parts of Kenya leading to even fewer tourists at resorts along the Indian Ocean coast in recent weeks.
Arrivals in the same period a year ago were depressed by a presidential election in March, which passed off peacefully despite widespread concerns of rigging and fears of a repeat of the violence of the previous election in 2007.
Mureithi Ndegwa, the tourist board's chief executive, said its numbers represented the period preceding the wave of brutal attacks on the coastal county of Lamu since mid-June in which more than 100 people have so far been killed.
TPS has however stated the board's statement was not in touch with the reality on the ground.
"We wonder if KTB and the Kenya tourism industry live in the same Kenya," remarked TPS.
A media relations consultant with KTB told Reuters by phone on Monday that the figures released were based on landing cards filled out by visitors to the country. Tourist arrival figures for the first half of the year will be released in the next three weeks, the official said.
About 900 tourists cut short their holidays after Britain issued a travel advisory against Mombasa on May 14.
Tourist numbers slid last year to 1.5 million after an all-time peak of 1.8 million in 2011.
TPS said the drop in visitors was causing job lay-offs and hurting suppliers in sectors such as farming and manufacturing that provide supplies and services to hotels.
"It is not business as usual - let us not kid ourselves," the TPS group said.
www.doitadigital.com