The United States produced the highest number of foreign tourists who visited Kenya in 2018, the latest data by the Ministry of Tourism shows.
Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala says out of the more than 2 million tourists who arrived in the country last year, 225,157 (11.12 percent) of them were American nationals. This represents a 50.85 percent increase from the 114,507 US nationals who toured the country in 2017.
The number of arrivals in 2018 grew by 37.33 percent to cross the 2 million mark for the first time and earning the country Sh157 billion, a 31.2 percent growth from the Sh119 billion earned in 2017.
Latest figures show 2,025,206 tourists visited the country in 2018 compared with 1,474,671 international arrivals in the previous year and 1,342,899 in 2016.
“The gains of the sector were as a result of coordinated efforts between various arms of government, whom the tourism sector has engaged, as well as the concerted efforts in marketing Kenya as a destination of choice,” says CS Balala.
Tanzania is the second highest Kenyan tourism market with 212,216 arrivals (10.48 percent) while Uganda is third with 204,082 tourists (10.08 percent).
Other countries with a significant number of tourists to Kenya are United Kingdom India, China, Germany, Italy, and South Africa.
At the same time, the number of beds taken by local tourists in 2018 grew to 3.9 million from 3.6 million in 2017.
“Domestic bed night for the year 2018 were estimated at 3,974,243, a 9.03 percent increase compared to 2017 data of 3, 645, 243,” Balala notes.
Speaking when he received the 2018 tourism performance report in Mombasa on Monday,
President Kenyatta has urged private stakeholders to invest more in refurbishing their products and revamping tourism experiences.
“As part of enhancing repeat visits, as well as recommend the destination to other visitors. Kenya currently has a total of 68 global hotel brands, a clear indication that the international community is confident of returns in investment in the tourism sector,” says President Kenyatta.
How much of the money made…
How much of the money made by tourism comes to the country or rather, how much money is left from the country of origin by those tourists? We all know that most of these tourists use deals from these travel agents that pay for a combo -travel, accomondation and food. All these packages are paid to these agencies outside Kenya. The only money we get for these tourists is from curios and stuff like that. Right?
@Kibogoyo, If I got you…
@Kibogoyo, If I got you right. Those agents in USA will pay local hotels in Kenya for food and accommodation.
These local hotels are owned…
These local hotels are owned by who? DO your home work. Very few of these hotels are owned by Kenyans, I mean Ruto and the rest by Italians, Germans and Israelis. The package money never crosses the ocean coming to Kenya
@Kibogoyo, the hotels buy…
@Kibogoyo, the hotels buy food from the local farmers. Kenyans work in those hotels doing all sorts of work. Hotels pay taxes to the county governments. Tour guides and drivers are Kenyans. They pay to enter game parks/reserves. And the list go on an on. Just as somebody told you. Do your homework.
I have done my homework. I…
I have done my homework. I did not say Kenyans don’t make money. Read and again and take time to understand. Out of the whole Tourism income, Kenyans probably make less than 20%. That is the money the drivers and the food (and by the way, most of these companies know how to capitalize in getting food a few pennies to the dollar . The info is there…google it.
How many hotels are owned by…
How many hotels are owned by Kenyans? The airlines used are not always Kenya airways. ….and those beaches are foreign owned…..and ….
If 2,000,000 people visited Kenya as tourists, why then is tourism not fetching more money than what the diaspora is sending back to Kenya? If theses tourists Brough the money in form of accommodation, food and travel, that 120 Billion shillings send by Kenyans in the diaspora would be coffee money. The fact is, the engine that runs tourism (the three things I mentioned above) are not owned by Kenyans and when you pay the packaged deals, only a small amount goes to Kenya. When you board a flight from Rome or TelAviv, you land in Kenya and are driven to an Hotel owned by the same.
It is called wallet share or…
It is called wallet share or income per capita. These people don’t understand what you are talking about. The wallet share in Kenya is far less than in Morocco, Tunisia, Mexico etc
Wrong. Do your homework.
Wrong. Do your homework.
You remind of some primary…
You remind of some primary school teachers who would punish students for getting poor marks in maths yet they did not teach the students well. What’s with your post? Wrong is an answer? I guess you never did your homework in school if you cannot elaborate what wrong means or stands for.Right!!!