Tanzania dethrones the US as Kenya’s leading tourism top source market in September occasioned by its lesser Covid-19 restrictions, according to new data.
Rising Covid-19 cases have hindered arrivals from the world’s biggest economy after many countries including Kenya, placed US travelers as virus high-risk. This has compelled most of them to either cancel or indefinitely carry forward their trips.
This comes when the US which has registered the highest number of infection worldwide has more than 10 million infections with over 200,000 deaths
Unlike the US, Tanzania placed fewer restraints amind an economic impact caution on its citizens.
Significant Rise
According to the latest data from the Tourism Research Institute (TRI), the US is number three behind Tanzania.
This is a significant rise from August when Tanzania could not even feature among the top 30 source market of visitors to Kenya.
“Tanzania leads with 4,309 followed by Uganda (3,812) and US (3,458),” the data shows.
Uganda too moved from position three it occupied in August to second place in September.
Ghana (83), Spain (95), South Africa, (68), Philippines (70, Swaziland (110), Turkey (155), Norway (167), and Pakistan (176) are countries where a few tourists visited Kenya.
As a sign of recovery path after Kenya resumed both local and international flights in August, September arrival increased to 85 percent from 14,049 in August to 26,018.
In March, the Kenyan government imposed Covid-19 restrictions including a dusk-to-dawn curfew, banned international and local passenger flights, and restricted movements in the country.
Mid this year, Kenya’s Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala said the ministry would, for the first time, be releasing the data on travel and tourist arrivals every month as the sector slowly reopens after a five-month shutdown.
“The data released is invaluable to the country as it helps us to keep track of international tourist numbers to determine whether tourism and travel are improving since the easing of travel restrictions and the resumption of international flights into the country,” he said.
Scheduled weekly international flights into Kenya for Qatar Airways and Ethiopian Airlines was at 14 each, RwandAir (12), Emirates (7), and British Airways (4).
Others include EgytAir (4), Turkish Airlines (5), Turkish Airlines, Swiss (4), Uganda Airlines (7), and Air Arabia (2) as per the data.
The national carrier, Kenya Airways weekly flight to Dubai stood at nine, London (3), Johannesburg (6), Lagos (2) while both Paris and Amsterdam were at two.
