(Photo courtesy of Hon. Peninah Malonza)
By Beverly Mautiah
As announced by Hon. Peninah Malonza, the Cabinet Secretary for Tourism, Wildlife, and Heritage, the number of International tourists in the year 2022 is slowly but surely improving as compared to 2019 and 2020.
During the pre-pandemic times in 2019, the number of international arrival visitors in Kenya marked 1,483,752, whereas in 2019 the number of visitors amounted to 2,048,834, making a good improvement resulting in a recovery of 72.4% of the incoming tourists.
According to Hon. Malonza, the Tourism sector is making progress with tourists getting back after the Covid-19 pandemic. “Last year, Kenya International tourist arrivals were 1,483,752, representing a 70.45% increase as compared to 2021 arrivals of 870,465.
The inbound receipts grew up to Ksh.268.09 billion compared to Ksh. 146.51 billion in 2021 which is a growth of 83%. The arrivals represent a 72.4% recovery towards 2019 numbers which is above the global average recovery rate of 63%, “Hon. Malonza said.
Breaking down the data by Tourism Research Institute, (TRI) the report shows that among the tourist’s motives, holiday traveling topped the list at 36.6% with visiting friends and family followed by a small margin at 27.8%. Those who visited with Business and Meetings Incentives, Convention and Exhibitions {MICE} were in the third position with 27.2% as compared to 13.5% in 2019, of the total visits.
The culture and Heritage sites welcomed a total of 856,604 visitors in 2022. The Nairobi National Museum led by 23%, Kisumu Museum and Fort Jesus followed by 20% 0f the total visitations. The number of international delegates hiked from a sum of 3,341 in January to September 2021 to 18,658 in 2022.
It was noted that some initiatives such as destinations campaign both locally and Internationally hosting of occasions like The New Kenya Strategy 2022-2025 among others are what fastened the improvement of the tourists’ arrival in Kenya.
In terms of countries, The United States of America led with 209,360 visitors, Uganda, the United Kingdom and Tanzania with 12%, 10%, and 10% market shares respectively. In 2022, the flight landings recorded an increase of 38% to 62,000 in 2022 which was less than 13% compared to pre-covid 19 performance.
The Cs urged the private sectors to include everyone in their investments, ” I call on the private sector players to also focus on their investments and efforts towards inclusion and social unity as this is the only way we will continue priding ourselves as a leader in the tourism sector”. Said Malonza.