Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said his government will channel more resources to tourism sector and step its marketing drive to woo more visitors to the east African nation after post-election crisis nearly led to the collapse of the industry.
Speaking to tourism stakeholders in the coastal city of Mombasalate Tuesday, Kibaki also assured the industry stakeholders that his government has accorded priority to the tourism sector as it has the capacity to respond quickly to positive policy initiatives and also has the potential to create thousands of jobs for the country's youth.
He said the government has teamed up with the private sector and other development partners to undertake an aggressive marketing campaign to reassure tourists that Kenya is a safe destination and commended the minister for tourism for personally taking charge of efforts to market Kenya abroad.
The president said the government has also managed to convince governments in countries that contribute the bulk of Kenya's tourists to lift the negative travel advisories that they imposed at the beginning of the year.
"Indeed, when tourism declines, it is not only government that is affected by reduced revenue earnings, but also many families suffer when their breadwinners lose their jobs, suppliers lose markets for their products and even small scale traders find it difficult to sell their wares," he said..
The east Africa country's image was affected by the post election violence which left at least 1,000 people dead and 300,000 displaced after President Kibaki's disputed December re-election.
About 20,000 people lost their jobs due to massive cancellations by tourists expected to arrive during that period, when the country was plunged in chaos over a disputed presidential election.
But Kibaki noted with satisfaction that some countries have already cancelled the advisories and endorsed Kenya as a tourism destination of choice.
Saying the country's tourism is a highly resilient sector, President Kibaki said the tremendous growth in the sector following the downturn in 2002 is a clear testimony to this fact.
Source:Xinhua
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