Six cruise ships which were expected to call this year at the world class cruise ship terminal were cancelled due to the pandemic.
The country is now embarking on an aggressive plan to revive the sector once the pandemic is over, as it seeks more partnerships with other competing countries sharing the Indian Ocean.
Kenya has urged its counterparts to forge partnership to rev up cruise ship tourism within the Indian Ocean circuit.
Kenya is pegging its hope on reviving cruise ship tourism next year after suffering massive losses this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cruise tourism is one of the fastest growing maritime sectors in the world and kenya is seeking a cut of the segment.
As part of the effort to tap this sector, Kenya has built a Sh1.3 billion cruise ship terminal at the port of Mombasa which has been lying idle due to coronavirus pandemic.
Six cruise ships which were expected to call this year at the world class cruise ship terminal were cancelled due to the pandemic.
The country is now embarking on an aggressive plan to revive the sector once the pandemic is over, as it seeks more partnerships with other competing countries sharing the Indian Ocean.
Kenya has urged its counterparts to forge partnership to rev up cruise ship tourism within the Indian Ocean circuit.
“We need to safeguard and protect our ocean then we will be able to get much more. The potential is huge in tourism because it is not just about building hotels but creating activities within the environs. Oceans sports tourism is crucial," said Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala who spoke during sustainable ocean economy webinar on December 3.
Mr Balala said Kenya will protect its ocean and tap into its enormous resources and potential to generate more income.
He said Kenya built the cruise terminal to attract tourism in the region.
“It is now a complicated time because of Covid-19. We need to partner with our neighbours whom we are sharing this ocean; you cannot just be a one point destination, it has to be a circuit, the Indian Ocena circuit and that is what we are working on,” added Mr Balala.
Although beach tourism is crucial, Mr Balala said the number of tourists arriving in Kenya to enjoy the product has dwindled.
The CS said in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Kenya's tourism sector enjoyed 70 percent beach tourism. This however changed to Safari.
He called for support from the private sector to re-develop tourism decrying how Kenya has lost its competition to other neighbouring countries.
“We need a lot of investments to do this. We need to support private sector to re-develop tourism and the products. We have lost our competition to our neighbours and the Caribbean,” added Mr Balala.
The CS urged the stakeholders to adopt green tourism which includes energy and water recycling.
He cited rising of the ocean, beach erosion, dumping of chlorinated swimming pool water into the sea, and investors putting up walls near the ocean among the major challenges Kenya is grappling with.
“We should control developments near the sea despite our plans to open up tourism. Tourism is a fundamental driver of employment,” he said adding that “some 1.4 billion people travelled in 2019. In Kenya we had almost 2.2 million who arrived last year.”.
“ Unfortunately todays figure, we have lost 72 percent of our arrivals. We have managed to get almost 400,000 in the last 10 months but only 19 percent are supposed to be tourists,” decried Mr Balala saying the sector has suffered immensely from the pandemic.
