•International tourism spending expected to rise from $790 million (Sh88.2 billion) in 2021 and hit a high of $2.5 billion (Sh279.3 billion) in 2025.
•This comes after the country lost more than Sh110 billion in tourism earnings last year as the pandemic brought the industry to its knees. Ukraine tourists arrive in Mombasa for holiday/ Kenya’s tourism sector is poised for a stronger growth next year, Fitch Ratings forecasts, building on the 2021 rebound in international travel with full recovery expected by 2025.
The ratings and research firm projects a stronger growth of 47.3 per cent for 2022, as the recovery in global travel gains traction, followed by further double-digit growth through to 2025 to take international tourism arrivals to 2.2 million.
Rebound is pegged on increasing international travel after a slowdown last year, with global airlines including Kenya Airways (KQ) increasing frequencies and resumption of flights on routes that had been suspended at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, last year.
A slowdown on international travel saw Kenya’s tourism industry contract by 71.3 per cent in 2020.
Top market sources for Kenya include the US, UK, Uganda, Tanzania, China, India, Germany, Rwanda, France and South Africa.
KQ resumed flights to Mumbai in September after a four-month break that was occasioned by increased cases of Covid-19 in India.
It resumed flights to London in June after Kenya was removed from the Covid related red-list by the UK, and increased frequencies to two.
It is currently recalling some of its former employees who were affected by restructuring last year, as demand for travel pick-up.
SriLankan Airlines which commenced flights to Nairobi in April this year plans to increase its frequencies to two, a move regional manager for Middle East North and Northern Africa, Amitabh Anthonypillai, said was due to growing demand from Asia to Kenya.
Major airlines connecting Nairobi (JKIA) to the world include British Airways, Turkish Airline, Qatar, Emirates and neighbouring Ethiopian Airline.In July, Lufthansa Group launched its first commercial flight from Frankfurt to Mombasa, increasing the number of scheduled flights to Mombasa, to two.Eurowings Discover, the newest leisure airline within the Lufthansa Group, has two weekly flights and is expected to increase to four flights in March 2022.Two more scheduled flights; Turkish Airline and Qatar Airways and a number of charted flights from Europe are expected to resume flying the Mombasa route."We expect Bulgaria , Russia and other markets to resume," said Mohammed Hersi, Pollmans’ Group Operations Director.He […]
