Two charter flights to bring in French tourists every week

A Dutch charter plane started operating weekly flights to Mombasa two weeks ago and another one from Amsterdam was expected to resume weekly flights last week after it withdrew following the post-election violence in 2008.

Tourist officials said charter flights from Europe would soar to 30 a week towards the end of the year, compared with less than 20 per week in recent months.

“Charter flights from Europe are expected to shoot up to 30 per week by the end of the year, compared with over 20 currently. By the look of things, we are gearing towards fully recovery between next year and 2011,” Coast Tourist Association chairman John Cleave was recently quoted.

Tourism earnings

Recent figures released by Tourism Minister Najib Balala showed that between January and September this year, tourism earnings rose by 10 per cent to $488.5 million (Sh36.64 billion), compared with $426.2 million (SH33.24 billion) realised in the same period last year.

Consolidated arrivals between January and September this year stood at 687,664, compared with 496,056 in the same period in 2008.

Tourist arrivals last year stood at 725,000, compared with 1.8 million in 2007.

According to the Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers Coast branch chairman Titus Kangangi, hotels in the region have registered impressive tourist bookings.

Last year, most of the hotels registered bed occupancy of less than 30 percent largely from conferencing and local tourists.

The setting in of the winter season, coupled with the Christmas and New Year festivities is expected to boost guest in Mombasa hotels.