Tourist arrivals bounce back to pre-Covid level
Tourists disembark from the cruise ship MV Norwegian Dawn at the Port of Mombasa on January 14, 2024.
What you need to know:
- Covid-19 pushed the tourism sector to a near halt in 2020.
- Number of tourists went up steadily to 871,000 in 2021.
Some 182,000 tourists visited Kenya in January this year, which is the first time arrivals hit the highs seen before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is also higher than the 171,000 tourists who visited the country in January 2020, signalling that not only has the sector fully recovered from the pandemic, but has surpassed the pre-Covid numbers.
The sector was one of the most badly hit by travel restrictions imposed due to the pandemic, which saw tourist arrivals plunge to just 60,000 in January 2021 before rising steadily to 91,000 in 2022 and 151,000 in 2023.
Covid-19 pushed the sector to a near halt in 2020, with the country receiving just 565,000 tourists that year, according to data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) that was sourced from the Kenya Tourism Board.
But as countries eased travel restrictions, the number of tourists who travelled to Kenya went up steadily to 871,000 in 2021, helping the recovery of thousands of jobs in the hospitality sector that had been lost due to the pandemic.
This trend has continued over the last two years, with tourist arrivals rising to 1.492 million in 2022 before hitting a high of 1.95 million in 2023.
“Tourist arrivals improved by 27.6 per cent in the 12 months to January 2024 compared to a similar period in 2023, and were 20.3 per cent higher in January 2024 compared to January 2023,” said CBK.
This has helped boost the growth of the accommodation and food service sector, which grew by 26 per cent in the third quarter of 2023 compared to a growth of 16.9 per cent in the previous year.
“The growth was partly attributed to accelerated visitor arrivals witnessed during the Africa Climate Summit Conference held in September 2023, coupled with the country’s stabilisation from effects of uncertainties associated with elections in the third quarter of 2022,” said the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
This growth comes as the government seeks to diversify the country’s tourism from the usual wildlife and traditional safari, towards the showcase of “Kenya’s rich cultural heritage, pristine beaches, adventure tourism, and emerging markets such as eco-tourism”.
The government says it is eyeing policies and incentives that will promote investments in adventure, relaxation, sports, conference and medical tourism.
