Kenya’s new tourism minister’s bold measures to jumpstart travel industry

Travel and tourism is the bed and butter for the East African nation of Kenya. Terrorism and lack of funding had caused the industry to take a nose dive in the recent past.

Travel and tourism is the bed and butter for the East African nation of Kenya. Terrorism and lack of funding had caused the industry to take a nose dive in the recent past. Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala who was appointed to be the new minister of tourism for Kenya issued the following statement.

Noticeable some important measures the government is planning to do and jumpstart the travel and tourism industry is to charge no landing fees for a period 30 months beginning from 1st January 2016 to 30th June 2018

A passenger subsidy of USD.30 per seat filled by international passengers who terminate or disembark in Kenya from 1st January 2016 to 30th June 2018

The new minister writes in his press statement today: The performance of the Tourism sector has recorded a dip in the recent past with myriad of challenges among them insecurity.

The coastal region whose economic mainstay is tourism has borne the brunt with the drop in number of charters leading to booking cancellations with some hotels having to lay off workers in the aftermath of the dip in arrivals.

This notwithstanding, our transformativeagenda in the tourism sector has been to identify mitigating measures.
My Ministry is therefore undertaking to recover the sector and I have unveiled a raft of incentive programs aimed at stimulating demand for Kenya as the preferred tourism destination and ultimately attaining recovery.

According to UNWTO, fifty four percent (54%) of tourists travel to a destination by air. In the case of Africa where road and rail connectivity within and beyond isstill developing, the figure isabove 70%.

This is the reason why my Ministry has taken air growth strategy as a critical success factor to tourism sector recovery.

In addition if a tourist charter airline operates once per week in Kenya while bringing an average of 290 passengers every week, it contribute a minimum of Kshs.1.65 billion of actual tourists spend in the economy.

Currently Moi International Airport Mombasa receives only three (3) charter airlines down from over thirty (30) just a few years ago owing to the challenges enumerated above.

It is worthy to note however that security has greatly improved and it’s time for tourist charter airlines to resume flights into Kenya.
It is in this regard that we today unveiled the Charter Incentives Program (CIP).

We have set aside Kshs.1.2 Billion Charter Incentive Program for Kenya (CIP) aimed at recovering lost business from tourist charters.
Under the program, all tourist charter aircrafts with passengers terminating at Moi International Airport Mombasa and Malindi Airport will enjoy the following:

a) No landing fees for a period 30 months beginning from 1st January 2016 to 30th June 2018.

b) Apassenger subsidy of USD.30 per seat filled by international passengers who terminate or disembark in Kenya over the same period.
In order to qualify for the program, charter airlines will be required to ensure that:

i. A minimum of 80% of the passengers brought by any charter airline must be terminating in Malindi or Mombasa.

ii. Commit to operate the Kenya route for a minimum of at least two (2) consecutive years.

TheCharterIncentiveProgramisaimed at:

i. Subsidizing the cost of tourist flights into Kenya by charters i.e. the marketing spend they undertake on behalf of Kenya
Stimulating demand for Kenya by new charters while encouraging charters already flying to Kenya to increase their route frequencies and partners disembarking in Kenya.

Rewarding charter airlines that make long term capacity growth commitments to bring tourists to experience Kenya’s tourism products.
An inter-agency committee comprising of Kenya Tourism Board, Kenya Airports Authority,Immigration and any other relevant organization will be set up to ensure that the incentives program is implemented to the latter and in accordance with the Governmentregulations.
The incentive period is 30 months effective 1st January 2016 and will end on 30th June 2018.

We will continue to monitor, evaluate and adjust these incentives everysix (6) months in order to suit prevailing market conditions.
We would wish to inform all airlines, tour operators and travel agents that control and organize tourist charters that Kenya is open for business.

We encourage them to take up the CIP and further give us input on how to improve it as we go along.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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