Piracy threat drives away cruise ship tourists from Kenya

Kenya is losing its cruise ship business to South Africa due to increasing pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast, industry players have said.

Despite the intense campaign by the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) to market Kenya in Europe, the country’s largest cruise tourism market, the cost of insurance by vessels plying the Somali waters has gone up due to the high risk caused by pirates.

This has made the voyage costly, with cruise tourism focus shifting to South Africa, said Abercrombie & Kent regional director for East Africa, Mr Auni Kanji, who has also been handling most of the vessels.

Kenya expects to receive only 10 cruise vessels this season, which began in November and is expected to last until April, this year.

This is a sharp drop compared to 15 vessels received last year that visited Zanzibar and Cape Town. The country received over 20 vessels between 2005 and 2007, Kanji said.

Although pirates have never been able to hijack cruise vessels due to what maritime experts attribute to their height and relatively high speed, last year’s statistics show an increase inn the sea attacks.

The Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau, says Somali pirates ventured further out to sea last year to capture vessels.

“Pirates are now more desperate to hijack ships. Recent attacks, at a distances of over 1,000 nautical miles from Mogadishu indicate the capability of the Somali pirates,” the bureau said in its annual report.

In the Gulf of Aden alone, 116 actual and attempted attacks took place, compared with 92 in 2008 targeting bulk carriers. Ten crew members were injured. In all, Somali pirates were responsible for 217 acts of piracy in 2009.

The other problem keeping cruise tourist away from the Mombasa, according to Kanji is lack of sufficient infrastructural support at the Mombasa port.

“We at least need a berth for cruise vessels, with facilities to cater for that,” Kanji said.

The cruise ships calling at Mombasa port use berth 1 and 2 which are also used to handle conventional cargo and vehicles.

In 2006, the Ministry of Transport shelved plans to construct a modern cruise terminal at Mombasa port after failing to find a strategic partner to invest in the facility.

The plan, contained in the port’s 25-year master plan and its strategic plan of 2005 currently under review ,would have re-developed berth one and two into world class cruise ship facility at the cost of $3 million.

According to the draft of the revised master plan presented to the port’s stakeholders mid last year, it was suggested that a long term solution for the cruise would be to build a cruise terminal in the western side of Port Reitz