Global slowdown, security scares, hit Kenyan tourism

NAIROBI: On a golden beach near the coastal city of Mombasa, the mood among locals whose livelihoods depend on foreign sun seekers is gloomy as Kenya’s neighbours are stealing away price-conscious tourists.

“Business is bad. There are not many tourists, I haven’t sold anything for two weeks,” complained Kazungu, a 27-year-old who touts boat excursions and souvenirs on the golden sands of Nyali beach.

The beach is full of Kenyans, but few foreigners.

At the Nyali International Beach Hotel, a 170-room luxury facility, a handful of tourists are at the pub while a couple are sunbathing beside the pool, but the hotel is evidently not busy.

“For the last three years it’s been very low,” admitted Tsuma Ndune, a 38-year-old kitesurf instructor who works further down the beach. He said business was roughly a third of what it had been during Kenya’s better days.

In Mombasa, a local cooperative making handicrafts, Akamba, has also seen its turnover halved since 2007, the year when Kenya — once seen as a beacon of stability in East Africa — took a turn for the worse and erupted into violence following disputed elections.

Purchasing power

“Most tourists have gone since 2007 and the election unrest, business just hasn’t been the same,” said Akamba’s director Jackson Mwaniki, adding that the global financial crisis had combined to provide a perfect storm for Kenyan tourism.

“Most of the tourists that are coming to Kenya are saying that they have been hit... the purchasing power to them has also gone down,” he said.

The post-election violence of 2007 to 2008 resulted in a 30 per cent drop in tourism over the following year before recovering three years later, according to official figures. But business dropped in 2012 and appears to have continued its downward trend — amid security fears linked to the war in Somalia and kidnappings along the coastline by Somali rebels, fears of renewed political violence during the 2013 elections and the Westgate shopping centre attack later in the year.