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Kenya receives more Chinese tourists during Christmas

Xinhua, December 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Chinese tourists trooped to Kenya's Lake Nakuru National Park during the Christmas festivities to enjoy the diverse view of the magnificent scenery characterized by endangered wildlife and various bird species.

The park's senior warden Dickson Ritan said more than 60 percent of the foreign tourists who visited the premium park were Chinese nationals, this raising the country's hope of achieving its target of attracting at least 100 Chinese tourists each month.

"Chinese made a huge number of the 100 foreign tourist who visited the park since December 24," Ritan told Xinhua on Thursday.

The premium park is normally one of the most popular destinations to nationals from Western and European countries constituting up to 80 percent of the annual visits.

However, terror attacks staged by the Al-Shabaab since 2013 causing an insecurity scare has resulted to an overtime drastic drop in tourist arrivals in Kenya's rhino sanctuary park.

Data from the park's management indicate that 19,803 tourists were received in 2013 against 54,535 visitors in the 2012.

In 2014, there was a slight improvement with a total of 28,131 being recorded to have visited the park which prides itself in being a safety net for the big four game animals namely lion,rhino,leopard and buffalo.

Beginning December 24, Ritan said they received an average of 300 locals against the 100 foreigners, majority of them being Chinese.

Ritan said the park retains its fame of being a birdlife site despite the occasional flamingoes' migratory trends prompted by changes in the weather patterns.

"Lake Nakuru National Park is the best destination in Africa for bird watchers," he noted.

"You cannot visit in September and say that there are no birds. No,it is just their season of migrating and it is acceptable across the world," further said the senior warden.

Recently, National Geographic, the globally-renowned organisation that reviews and recommends the world's best trip and adventure destinations rated Lake Nakuru as the second best after Christmas Island in Australia. Endit