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It’s all systems go as the long-awaited annual wildebeest migration finally kicked off heralding full tourist bookings in lodges and camps in the Masai Mara Game Reserve.

Masai Mara chief park Warden Stephen Ole Minis said the widely anticipated spectacle was delayed for weeks compared to previous years, as the precise timing of their movement is entirely dependent on seasonal rainfall patterns.

Speaking yesterday at the sand river crossing point at the border of Kenya and Tanzania, Minis said international demand for travel to Kenya to see the Great Migration is extremely high surpassing bed capacity.

The epic migration that started on Saturday has, however, signaled loads of tourists in Mara to witness what is famously called the ‘seventh new wonder of the world’.

A spot-check in three top lodges in the Mara, MGM Muthu-Kekorok Lodge, JW Marriot Maasai Mara Lodge and Sarova Mara camp are fully booked for the next two months, posing challenges for operators looking to secure space for clients eager to witness the migration during Kenya’s peak season.

Managers in the above hotels Yajit Kumarr and Stephen Shunai (MGM Muthu), Fairman Muhingi (JW Marriott) and Nicholas Maina (Sarova Mara) say there is difficulty in securing beds, especially at the top-end lodges who have had many pandemic-era bookings from 2020 and 2021 bumped into 2022 and beyond.

“We are now seeking more space from other facilities outside the reserve as we are over booked. This is an indication that tourism this season is promising unlike the three previous years when Covid-19 locked tourists from coming to Kenya,” Shunai noted. Muhingi, the operation manager of JM Marriott Mara villas, said the bed occupancy is promising and they were looking above 80 percent on average throughout the season.

He attributes the high number of tourists to management, the new chief warden and county government who are putting in a lot of enfaces to implement the Masai Mara development plan that has brought back the Mara glory.

Maina said they are optimistic to make a comeback after huge losses in the last three consecutive years when tourists cancelled their bookings due to Covid.
“Most of us are now hosting tourists in manager’s houses, staff quarters after spaces have been surpassed,” he noted.

American tourists who were in the Mara for a honeymoon holiday Hallie and Zac Yeni from Philadelphia PA in the United States, say they have had an experience of their lifetime in Mara and hailed Kenya as the safest destination in the world.

The two who work as Commercial Real Estate developer and Social Worker respectively, say they enjoyed the natural habitat, with a lot of wildlife, fresh air and safe to be unlike back at their home where the environment is so polluted and a lot of crime.

“We are here for our honeymoon which was my dream. It has been amazing to be here in Kenya and see so many animals, including the wildebeest. It’s a break from our normal life back home which is more congested, gun shots all over, a lot of elegies, here it’s fresh air, we love Kenya,” said Hallie. Minis says the tourist peak season is the first after the Masai Mara management plan has been passed into law and is currently being implemented by Governor Patrick Ntutu-led administration.

In the plan, zonation and visitor use scheme aimed at managing and regulating visitor use and impacts in the different MMNR zones is at the centre of the 10-year plan.

County Executive Committee Member for Tourism and Wildlife Johnson Sipitiek said the zonation scheme, according to the management plan, establishes four categories of zone area which are high-use, low use, Mara River Ecological and MMNR buffer zone.

“In the new law, the high use zones will be the focus of management efforts to enhance the reserve’s tourism product and provide a high quality, proactively managed, wildlife viewing experience for visitors,” said Sipitiek.

Governor Ntutu, who is also the Tourism Committee Chair at the Council of Governors, has welcomed tourists from within and without to tour the Masai Mara Game Reserve to witness the wildebeest migration.

“Since the beginning of this year, tourist attraction centres have been receiving visitors. From this month all the way to October, Masai Mara is at its peak due to the wildebeest migration,” Ntutu, who is at the UN Headquarters in New York on official duty, said on phone.