The
tourism industry in strife-torn Kenya has been dealt a blow from a
large number of cancellations of European charter flights after
England, France, Germany and Italy each issued stringent travel
advisories for nonessential travel to Kenya.
U.S.-based tour
operators, meanwhile, said they were continuing to see minimal
cancellations on their departures.
Travel advisories,
including one from the U.S. State Department, were put in place
after violent and deadly political unrest broke out in the wake of
Kenya's presidential elections in late December. According to Jake
Grieves-Cook, spokesman for the Kenya Tourism Federation and
managing director of Gamewatchers Safaris in Kenya, most of the
major European charter companies, such as those operated by TUI and
Corsair, have a policy of canceling flights when their governments
issue a strict travel warning.
"Cancellations are
very much linked to the Mombasa coastal beach resorts," he
said.
Grieves-Cook said
that Kenya's Mombasa coast had a cancellation rate as high as 90%
and that the potential loss to the tourism industry there was
around $45 million. He added that those resorts were heavily
frequented by European tourists, not Americans.
"The longer [the
travel advisories are] in place, the longer the hotels at the coast
are not able to receive charter passengers, the harder it may be
for them to get back," said Grieves-Cook. "If they're all lifted by
next week, things should be back to normal in a relatively short
period."
Already, Grieves-Cook
said, Germany and Italy have relaxed the wording of their
advisories.
Americans appear to
be continuing with their Kenya vacations.
"We specialize in
customized programs, very high-end trips," said Sunit Sanghrajka,
president of Luxury Trips, who himself had just returned from Kenya
last week after vacationing there with his family for several
weeks. "But these are the clients that haven't cancelled. They're
staying put. We had a couple of people who wanted to cancel, but
they decided to just sit it out and wait."
So far, the North
American market is averaging about 1% to 4% cancellations of
previously booked trips to Kenya, according to Maisa Fernandez,
public relations manager at the Kenya Tourist Board.
To
contact reporter Michelle Baran, send e-mail to [email protected].