This archive report was first published on 4 July 2019.
On July 4, 2019, Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala addressed a tourism stakeholders meeting during the 17th Kenya Association of Hotel-keepers and Caterers (KAHC) Annual Symposium.
According to Balala, the number of international arrivals into Kenya was 921,090 for the past six months, representing a slight decline of 0.723 percent since arrivals for the same period in 2018.
However, Balala noted that the first six months of the year are usually the low season for the tourism sector, and that the decline in numbers was mainly reported for the arrivals within the East African region.
He emphasized that the traditional source markets for Kenya remained strong, clarifying that the decline was on cross-border not international arrivals.
Notably, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and the Moi International Airport recorded an impressive performance, with JKIA receiving a total of 623,371 arrivals and Moi International Airport receiving 61,739 arrivals.
CS Balala urged all stakeholders to put in more effort to ensure that they perform better by the end of the year.
He also emphasized the need for government and tourism stakeholders to work together to start implementing the National Tourism Blueprint (NTB) 2030, which aims to drive the sector to greater heights through four key pillars – Product, Marketing, Investment, and Infrastructure.
