Africa Safari News and Travel

Kenya Tourist Board revealed that visitors from African countries are now among the major contributors to tourism earnings of the country.

Tourists from Africa account for a fifth of all tourists who visited the country during the first six months of the year after recording a growth of 18% in number.

Dr Ongong’a Achieng’, managing director Kenya Tourism Board, said the growth in visitor numbers from the continent was pushed by conference attendance following the rehabilitation of the key Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) at a cost of Sh200 million.

KICC managing director Phillip Kisia said the revamped facility has helped reclaim Kenya’s status as an international destination as well as a regional hub for conference tourism.

He revealed that in the last two years, the centre had recorded a 250 per cent growth, where the regional market accounted for 15 per cent, domestic market 40 per cent and international market the rest.

The managing director of Safari Park Hotel, Solomon Matiri, said, Kenyans led the hotel using conference facilities at 30.3 per cent, followed by South Africa and Nigeria.

Last month, Safari Park had 90 conferences with bookings required at one year in advance.

The revenue manager at the Sarova Stanley, Catherine Gachie, said there was a notable increase in tourists across the board, with more women tourists staying in the hotel.

Most of the African tourists staying at the hotel were from South Africa (16 per cent) followed by Tanzania (11 per cent) and Uganda (10 per cent).

The total number tourists to the Kenya by the third quarter of the year were 1.3 million with earnings at Sh49.2 billion, a third of it from domestic tourists.

South Africa is promoting itself to Ugandan tourists as an Africa holiday destination under a new advertising campaign where holidaymakers from Uganda will enjoy subsided rates on a safari to South Africa.

The tourism marketing body, known as South Africa Trade, held an exhibition at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel this week.

Hulisoni Thabela, the trade relations manager, explained that East Africa was a big market for them. The region, he said, would gain from the initiative.

“Many Ugandans travel to South Africa for business-related activities, although the more popular activities remain shopping and leisure. It is a land of exploration and adventure.”

“We want tour and travel agents to know about South Africa’s surplus tourism experience through provision of relevant information to the trade that will help them to sell the destination more effectively to their clients,” she said.

Thabela disclosed that last year alone, more than 10,000 Ugandans visited South Africa for business and holiday.

“There is an opportunity to discover South Africa’s breathtaking beauty and world-class hotels,” she added.

The South African High Commission to Kampala, Michael Schoeman, said the number of visas issued to Ugandans was increasing. It was over 7,000 for 2006 alone.

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