Kenya coastal tourism stakeholders optimistic of high season

Kenya's tourism stakeholders in the coastal region say the sector has been performing quite well since the onset of the high season in July.

Kenya Coast Tourist Association chairperson, Mohammed Hersi, said Wednesday the region had been performing well with bed occupancy in hotels ranging between 70 and 90 percent as from October.

"Currently, we are operating on an average of 90 percent bed occupancy in many hotels in the region. Domestic tourism however takes a bigger percentage," Hersi told journalists in the coastal resort city of Mombasa.

The sector received a boost on Tuesday after a cruise ship, MS Silver Cloud, called at the port of Mombasa with 438 guests -- 216 tourists and 222 crew members. Many of the tourists on board were those from Europe and the United States.

"The arrival of the tourists is a stamp of approval that Kenya is a quality destination," Hersi said. The Kenya Tourism Board said it expected more ships to be calling at the Mombasa port until January.

Kenya Tourism Board Assistant Public Relations Manager, Kimutai Ngeno, said the sector had recorded an increase of cruise tourism this year compared to the previous years.

Ngeno said the calling of the cruise ships was a sign of confidence for the destination owing to improved security in the Indian Ocean. Last year, the country attracted more than 3,000 cruise tourists, compared with 900 in 2014.

"The number has gone up, and by September, we had received over 1,880 cruise tourists. We are hoping the number will go up as we have several ships lined up," said Kimutai.

In 2013 and 2014, the region was badly hit by the sporadic Al-Shabaab terror attacks leading to the issuance of travel advisories by Western nations.

This led to the cancellation of charter flights as well as cruise ship trips to Mombasa.

The region lost over 70 percent of international arrivals and has since then been depending largely on domestic tourists. Endit