Nairobi makes list of 20 fast-growing tourist destinations
Nairobi skyline by night. Nairobi is the fourth most visited city in Africa, a new research shows, underlining the city’s rating as the economic hub of the wider East and Central Africa. File
What you need to know:
Nairobi’s increasing popularity as a tourist destination saw it placed fourth in the continent behind Johannesburg, Cairo and Casablanca.
The three cities where most visitors to Nairobi are forecast to come from are London (203,000 people), Amsterdam (149,000 people), and Johannesburg (138,000 people).
Nairobi has been ranked as the 13th fastest-growing destination city as emerging markets beat developed countries in this year’s MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index.
According to the report, Kenya’s capital city is expected to have a 10 per cent growth in terms of visitor numbers this year, ahead of developed markets such as Singapore (9.9 per cent) and Seoul (9.8 per cent).
With the exception of Tokyo, the top 11 slots were all occupied by developing markets with Rio de Janeiro leading the pack with an impressive 28.6 per cent expected growth rate.
“Six of the top 20 fastest growing destination cities are in the Middle East and Africa, another six in Asia/Pacific and five in Latin America,” the report, which is in its second year, noted.
“In the growth of visitor numbers, emerging markets dominate with the top 13 countries experiencing double-digit growth.”
This is an improvement from last year’s ranking where Nairobi did not feature in the top 20 cities growth ranking, with Barcelona and Kuala Lumpur taking the top two positions at the time.
The 2012 study also forecasts that 1.8 million visitors are expected to visit the Kenyan capital this year, injecting an estimated Sh124 billion ($1.5 billion) into the town’s economy — a 16.7 per cent growth.
Nairobi’s increasing popularity as a tourist destination saw it placed fourth in the continent behind Johannesburg, Cairo and Casablanca.
The three cities where most visitors to Nairobi are forecast to come from are London (203,000 people), Amsterdam (149,000 people), and Johannesburg (138,000 people).
Charlton Goredema, vice president of marketing, East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, linked the positive forecasts to improvements in the airline industry.
“The Kenyan government’s identification of air transport capacity as being vital to the continued growth of the country’s economy and the resulting investment in upgrading Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is now yielding results, as can be seen in the Index," he noted.
Data from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) indicates that aircraft movements have increased from 195,000 in 2008 to 335,000 in 2010/2011, a 72 per cent increase.
Last year, tourism earnings defied adverse travel advisories and the euro zone crisis to post best performance to date.
Earnings from the industry rose by 32.8 per cent to Sh97.9 billion, helped by the weakening of the shilling and increased arrivals that grew by 15.4 per cent to 1.26 million.
“The report is a strong endorsement of Nairobi as a destination of choice and also especially coming after a series of travel advisories from some of our key markets,” said Mr Ndegwa Muriithi, the Kenya Tourist Board managing director.
The Index is used as a barometer for understanding the global economy and flow of commerce.
The projected increase in spending would benefit businesses such as tour and travel companies, car-hire, national parks and the hotel industry.
Dr Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, global economic adviser for MasterCard Worldwide and author of the report noted that the use of cashless payments by tourists entering the country was rising.
