By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura
Nairobi - Kenya expects an 18 percent rise in tourist arrivals this year as a result of a successful international marketing drive and the scrapping of adverse travel warnings, the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) said on Tuesday.
The east African country - famed for its wildlife and beaches - projects that some 700 000 holiday makers will visit by air in 2006, compared with 592 442 in 2005. The figures exclude overland arrivals.
Tourism contributed 12,7 percent to gross domestic product in 2005 and a figure projected to increase to 14 percent in 2006, according to the KTB.
"Things are looking good and the upward trend is continuing," KTB Chairman Jake Grieves-Cook said in a telephone interview.
"Following the concerted marketing campaign and the removal of travel warnings, everyone has enjoyed growth."
Kenya's tourism industry, a top forex earner along with tea exports, suffered following bomb attacks on the United States embassy in Nairobi in 1998 and a hotel near the coastal town Mombasa in 2002.
Kenya earned 41,2-billion shillings (about R3.4-billion) from tea in 2004 according to the central bureau of statistics, when tourism earned 39,2-billion shillings (about R3,2-billion).
Figures for 2005 have not yet been released.
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network claimed responsibility for the Mombasa attack and was blamed for the US mission blast.
The attacks triggered security warnings from the United States, frightening away some tourists.
Kenya fought back the decline in its lifeline sector through an intensive marketing campaign in its key European markets and expanded to new ones in Asia.
The KTB spent 500 million Kenyan shillings (about R42-million) in 2003-2004 on a media campaign in Europe and in January received €3-million (about R22-million) from the European Union to further boost its international marketing.
As a result, earnings from the tourism sector rose 15,9 percent to 48,9 billion Kenya shillings (about R4-million) in 2005 from 42,2 billion (about R3,5-million)in the previous year, the KTB said.
Grieves-Cook said recent rains in the drought stricken country would help lift arrivals further.
"There had been concerns that the drought would have affected people's safari experience, but with the rains, the parks are green and there are a lot of young animals," he said.
Grieves-Cook said there were indications that more Chinese and Japanese tourists were visiting Kenya but did not give supporting figures.
Most visitors to the country are from Britain and Germany but arrivals from Asia have risen in the past two years.
Kenya Airways, the national carrier, has introduced direct flights to Hong Kong three times a week to tap into the increasing interest.