Tourism sector recorded significant growth last year, according to the latest figures of performance released by Kenya National Bureau of Statistic (KNBS). The growth took place despite the heated electioneering year that was 2022, a period which stakeholders in the sector had envisioned a dip in performance.

According to the Economic Survey 2023 report released on Wednesday, the sector recorded an improved performance last year due mainly to an increase in international visitor arrivals. International arrivals grew to 1.54 million last year, up from 871,300 in 2021. Arrival figures indicate that out of 1.54 million tourists, holidays represented 559,100, business (420,600), transit (75,800), and others (485,400).

“The number of visitor arrivals on holiday accounted for 36.3 per cent of all international arrivals in 2022 while those on business accounted for 27.3 per cent,” the report stated.

It attributed the increase in the international visitor arrivals mainly to relaxation of Covid-19 travel restrictions in 2022 and countries around the world opening their borders for travel.

Tourism numbers

Kenya Coast Tourism Association (KCTA) CEO Julius Owino, however, said considering the new data is being compared to Covid-19 figures, the recorded improvement does not reflect the actual representation of expected tourism numbers in the country.

“If you look at pre-Covid numbers, they are still higher than what we are receiving. But again, the thing is, while there is the potential of achieving the best growth, we are not achieving the numbers we should be getting more so at the Coast because of the issues of accessibility,” he said.

“Today if the government allowed more flights to come directly to Mombasa, the numbers could have been far much better. Currently we only have one international flight to Mombasa that is the Ethiopian airlines which is scheduled, other than the KQ that does Dubai direct.” Owino noted.

The rest, he said in an interview, are charters which have also gone down because the charter business is not doing very well.