Submitted by Bernard:
Appeared in Today's Ottawa Citizen
Wondering where the tourists are
Kenya’s game parks stand quiet and its economy bleeds as visitors avoid what once was Africa’s safest destination
BY TIM QUERENGESSER
TMASAI MARA, Kenya he lions still trot like kings beside the tour trucks here, but their gasping audience is gone. Kenya’s ongoing political crisis has scared away international travellers in droves.
At the luxurious $350-per-night Mara Serena Safari Lodge on a hill overlooking the Masai Mara game park’s sprawling plains, Peter Mbogua, the charismatic manager, put on a brave face. Only a quarter of the rooms in the boutique hotel were booked, compared to the 75 per cent occupancy usually seen in January. “Phones are not ringing with new bookings, that is the concern,” he said recently.
The story was worse at the lavish Samburu Intrepids hotel in the Samburu game park. A restaurant capable of feeding hundreds sat empty as chefs stocked gleaming buffet trays with food no one was there to eat. “Right now we have seven guests,” said the hotel’s manager, Moses Lesaibile. “It’s likely to get even worse.”
After Kenya’s election on Dec. 27, disputed results plunged the country into ethnic violence. More than 600 lives have been lost, and one of the continent’s most promising democracies and leading economies has been pushed to the brink.
The strife has put Kenya on the front page for all the wrong reasons, leaving its once envied reputation as a safe African destination with elephants and nice beaches in tatters. And the tourism industry, worth nearly $1 billion yearly and a mainstay of its economy, is in free fall.
The international reaction has been swift. All charter flights from Britain remain suspended and visitors from much of Europe and North America, including Canada, are advised against all but essential travel. The restrictions scare off many and prevent others from coming or staying due to travel insurance policies.
Some adventure travel companies have elected to continue tours, flying guests over potential trouble spots instead of using roads.
But many others have simply pulled the plug on Kenya and started promoting other destinations with similar attractions, like its neighbour, Tanzania.
Bookings are down by 80 per cent in some parts of Kenya, and hotels are closing their doors and laying off staff. During January and February alone — peak season here — the Kenya Tourist Board estimates losses of $165 million.
Game parks in Kenya have done relatively well compared to the resorts on the Indian Ocean coast. Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city and a hub for sun-seekers in the region, is expected to lose 120,000 jobs, according to the Kenya Tourist Board. Nearly 80 per cent of the employment in the area is linked to tourism.
Kenya Airways, the largest domestic airline, is reducing the number of flights to the city by 1,200 seats as a result.
The situation is moving from bad to the unknown. Nearly one million are employed by the industry and their futures, as well as the country’s coffers, hang in the balance. “We are very much concerned,” said Achien Ongonga, managing director of the Tourist Board. “More than anything else, tourism is a very vital industry.”
See page 44
Kenya’s game parks stand quiet and its economy bleeds as visitors avoid what once was Africa’s safest destination
BY TIM QUERENGESSER
TMASAI MARA, Kenya he lions still trot like kings beside the tour trucks here, but their gasping audience is gone. Kenya’s ongoing political crisis has scared away international travellers in droves.
At the luxurious $350-per-night Mara Serena Safari Lodge on a hill overlooking the Masai Mara game park’s sprawling plains, Peter Mbogua, the charismatic manager, put on a brave face. Only a quarter of the rooms in the boutique hotel were booked, compared to the 75 per cent occupancy usually seen in January. “Phones are not ringing with new bookings, that is the concern,” he said recently.
The story was worse at the lavish Samburu Intrepids hotel in the Samburu game park. A restaurant capable of feeding hundreds sat empty as chefs stocked gleaming buffet trays with food no one was there to eat. “Right now we have seven guests,” said the hotel’s manager, Moses Lesaibile. “It’s likely to get even worse.”
After Kenya’s election on Dec. 27, disputed results plunged the country into ethnic violence. More than 600 lives have been lost, and one of the continent’s most promising democracies and leading economies has been pushed to the brink.
The strife has put Kenya on the front page for all the wrong reasons, leaving its once envied reputation as a safe African destination with elephants and nice beaches in tatters. And the tourism industry, worth nearly $1 billion yearly and a mainstay of its economy, is in free fall.
The international reaction has been swift. All charter flights from Britain remain suspended and visitors from much of Europe and North America, including Canada, are advised against all but essential travel. The restrictions scare off many and prevent others from coming or staying due to travel insurance policies.
Some adventure travel companies have elected to continue tours, flying guests over potential trouble spots instead of using roads.
But many others have simply pulled the plug on Kenya and started promoting other destinations with similar attractions, like its neighbour, Tanzania.
Bookings are down by 80 per cent in some parts of Kenya, and hotels are closing their doors and laying off staff. During January and February alone — peak season here — the Kenya Tourist Board estimates losses of $165 million.
Game parks in Kenya have done relatively well compared to the resorts on the Indian Ocean coast. Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city and a hub for sun-seekers in the region, is expected to lose 120,000 jobs, according to the Kenya Tourist Board. Nearly 80 per cent of the employment in the area is linked to tourism.
Kenya Airways, the largest domestic airline, is reducing the number of flights to the city by 1,200 seats as a result.
The situation is moving from bad to the unknown. Nearly one million are employed by the industry and their futures, as well as the country’s coffers, hang in the balance. “We are very much concerned,” said Achien Ongonga, managing director of the Tourist Board. “More than anything else, tourism is a very vital industry.”
During a recent tour of safari lodges hosted by the industry, Kenyan officials were adamant that the security situation looks worse from outside. Despite the political crisis, game parks have been safe and beach resorts have been unaffected and tourists haven’t noticed a thing, they said.
“The travel advisories are really what’s going to kill us,” said Duncan Mariuki, chairman of the Kenya Association of Tour Operators.
The messages fit with an undying faith that much of the industry’s current woes have been created outside their borders.
Indeed, once the problems are removed, business could rebound within six months, they said.
Although conflicts have been concentrated in rural towns and the surrounding countryside, strife has hit even the majestic Masai Mara. On Jan. 18, Masai herders and Kikuyu farmers fought with arrows and clubs on the cusp of the park. At least four people were killed.
Thanks to the stories like this, Kenya’s image with potential visitors is no longer synonymous with giraffes but instead with places like Somalia or Democratic Republic of Congo, said Rose Musonye, with the tourist board.
“Right now we are viewed together with them. (The election) has done a lot of damage.”
And image is crucial. Every year nearly one million visitors fly here, donning Tilley hats and khaki shirts to play out fantasies of being Ernest Hemingway on the hunt in
The Green Hills of Africa or spot characters from the Lion King. They spend hundreds of dollars per day on park fees, lodge tolls and safari guides as they go.
Now, worries about the unpredictable violence and strife are occupying the imaginations of many potential travelers.
Debbie Shillitto and her husband, Rick Ronning, were worried they would miss the lions after arriving in Nairobi on New Year’s Eve, when the crisis erupted. The Penticton, B.C., couple found themselves staring at the walls inside their hotel for five days, wondering if their month-long safari in Kenya and Tanzania would be cancelled.
“We didn’t even know there was an election going on,” Ms. Shillitto said, sitting at the pool of the Samburu Serena Hotel. “For five days we were asked to stay inside. We had gone to Nairobi to see it, so we were disappointed.”
Once the situation calmed, Ms. Shillitto and Mr. Ronning were able to continue on to their safari. Despite that, she said it’s understandable if some still fear travelling in Kenya. “I wouldn’t say ‘Hop on a plane here,’ right now because there’s been lots of trouble.”
Debbie Bell, one of the seven guests staying at the Samburu Intrepids, blamed the news coverage for much of the damage.
“The media hyped it a bit too much,” the Solsbury, England, native said of the crisis.
But she added it’s more complicated than just safety for tourists. Many refuse to travel in a country where it is safe for outsiders but where human rights abuses have been reported and strife between locals is flaring.
“Nobody wants to go to a country that could be erupting into civil war,” she said.
Kenya’s tourism industry has been in this situation before. Decades of kleptocratic rule by former president Daniel arap Moi, who left in 2002, and then terror attacks in Mombasa in 2003, left the industry “on its knees,” said Dr. Ongonga.
A re-invigorated democracy under Mwai Kibaki, who took power in 2002, and an open-forbusiness atmosphere saw it quickly rebound, and investment in new hotels has been intense, he said.
Now, with Mr. Kibaki’s presidency challenged by opposition leader Raila Odinga, who believes he won the election, the only way to untie the knot is for the two to bury their ambitions for the sake of the country, said Mr. Ongonga.
“Here we are confronting something of our own making but that might make tourists unsure to travel to Kenya,” he said.
From page E1
During a recent tour of safari lodges hosted by the industry, Kenyan officials were adamant that the security situation looks worse from outside. Despite the political crisis, game parks have been safe and beach resorts have been unaffected and tourists haven’t noticed a thing, they said.
“The travel advisories are really what’s going to kill us,” said Duncan Mariuki, chairman of the Kenya Association of Tour Operators.
The messages fit with an undying faith that much of the industry’s current woes have been created outside their borders.
Indeed, once the problems are removed, business could rebound within six months, they said.
Although conflicts have been concentrated in rural towns and the surrounding countryside, strife has hit even the majestic Masai Mara. On Jan. 18, Masai herders and Kikuyu farmers fought with arrows and clubs on the cusp of the park. At least four people were killed.
Thanks to the stories like this, Kenya’s image with potential visitors is no longer synonymous with giraffes but instead with places like Somalia or Democratic Republic of Congo, said Rose Musonye, with the tourist board.
“Right now we are viewed together with them. (The election) has done a lot of damage.”
And image is crucial. Every year nearly one million visitors fly here, donning Tilley hats and khaki shirts to play out fantasies of being Ernest Hemingway on the hunt in
The Green Hills of Africa or spot characters from the Lion King. They spend hundreds of dollars per day on park fees, lodge tolls and safari guides as they go.
Now, worries about the unpredictable violence and strife are occupying the imaginations of many potential travelers.
Debbie Shillitto and her husband, Rick Ronning, were worried they would miss the lions after arriving in Nairobi on New Year’s Eve, when the crisis erupted. The Penticton, B.C., couple found themselves staring at the walls inside their hotel for five days, wondering if their month-long safari in Kenya and Tanzania would be cancelled.
“We didn’t even know there was an election going on,” Ms. Shillitto said, sitting at the pool of the Samburu Serena Hotel. “For five days we were asked to stay inside. We had gone to Nairobi to see it, so we were disappointed.”
Once the situation calmed, Ms. Shillitto and Mr. Ronning were able to continue on to their safari. Despite that, she said it’s understandable if some still fear travelling in Kenya. “I wouldn’t say ‘Hop on a plane here,’ right now because there’s been lots of trouble.”
Debbie Bell, one of the seven guests staying at the Samburu Intrepids, blamed the news coverage for much of the damage.
“The media hyped it a bit too much,” the Solsbury, England, native said of the crisis.
But she added it’s more complicated than just safety for tourists. Many refuse to travel in a country where it is safe for outsiders but where human rights abuses have been reported and strife between locals is flaring.
“Nobody wants to go to a country that could be erupting into civil war,” she said.
Kenya’s tourism industry has been in this situation before. Decades of kleptocratic rule by former president Daniel arap Moi, who left in 2002, and then terror attacks in Mombasa in 2003, left the industry “on its knees,” said Dr. Ongonga.
A re-invigorated democracy under Mwai Kibaki, who took power in 2002, and an open-forbusiness atmosphere saw it quickly rebound, and investment in new hotels has been intense, he said.
Now, with Mr. Kibaki’s presidency challenged by opposition leader Raila Odinga, who believes he won the election, the only way to untie the knot is for the two to bury their ambitions for the sake of the country, said Mr. Ongonga.
“Here we are confronting something of our own making but that might make tourists unsure to travel to Kenya,” he said. |