By Isaac Khisa
EAC acts amid lower rate of international tourist arrivals
The East African
tourism operators are desperate to tap into domestic tourism to boost an
industry that has for years remained under-explored.
Tourism industry
executives in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania told The Independent
during the Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo 2015 in Kampala on Nov.17-19
that they are now courting domestic tourists in the region to make-up
for the occasional shortfalls from international tourist arrivals.
"We are now looking
at boosting domestic tourism in the region to relieve us from
over-dependence on international tourists," Martha Nansamba, the
marketing manager at Uganda's Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife
Conservation Trust, said.
For decades, the
East African region has relied on foreign tourists mainly from the
European Union, USA and Australia among other countries.
Nansamba's views
were echoed by Amos Wekesa, the chief executive officer at Great Lakes
Safaris, who said the country's tourism industry is looking at tapping
into the domestic, regional, and the continent's tourism potentials.
"We are currently
looking at growing the domestic tourism. At the moment, 50,000 Ugandans
visit Kenya's tourist destinations earning that East African nation
about $100million per annum. Now, it is time to make Ugandans visit
their own tourism destinations or encourage Kenyan tourists to visit our
tourism destinations," Wekesa says. According to the industry
executives, the domestic tourists, who consist mainly of expatriates,
contribute on average 20% of the total tourists that visit the region's
tourism destinations.
The new
developments come at the time when Uganda expects a slowdown in the
tourism industry as the country heads to polls in February next year.
In 2014, Uganda,
Rwanda, and Tanzania registered an increase in tourism arrivals compared
with the previous year citing peace, security and strong marketing
campaigns.
Available data from
the Uganda Tourism Board shows that tourist arrivals in the country
increased from 600,000 in 2006 to 1.4million visitors in 2014 leading to
a surge in earnings from $600,000 to $1.4million during the same
period.
Reports indicate
that Tanzania's tourist industry earned $2.5 billion in the year ending
January 2015, up from $1.89 billion the previous year.
It is expected that
the number of tourist arrivals in the country will hit 1.2 million this
year, up from one million visitors in 2014. 'According to the five-year
marketing blueprint rolled out in 2013, Tanzania anticipates to
register two million tourists by the close of 2017, boosting revenue to
nearly $3.8 billion.
Similarly, Rwanda's
tourism revenues grew from $293million in 2013 to $303m in 2014,
representing a 3% increase, according to Rwanda Development Board (RDB).
Between July 2013
and June 2014, Rwanda received 1.17 million visitors, compared to the
previous year with 1.14 million tourists. Rwanda's tourism has risen in
the past decade, growing from $62 million in 2000, to the current
figures, with Gorilla permits counting for the largest portion. Rwanda
hopes to earn up to $860 million by 2017.
On the other hand,
Kenya earned $25.56 million from the tourism industry, marking the third
straight annual decline from the $28.79 million earned in 2011,
according to the country's annual economic survey, due to a decline in
tourist arrivals.
Kenya received
861,400 international visitors - representing an 11.1% decrease in
arrivals mainly attributed to negative travel advisories issued by some
countries.
Johnny Magweru, the
operations manager at the Kenya Tourism Federation, told The
Independent that the country's recent participation in the regional
tourism expo to promote domestic tourism, helped ensure that its key
foreign tourism markets lift the travel advisories.
"Our previous
participation in tourism exhibition in the region has had a great impact
on our tourism. Since the tourism expo in Nairobi, we had the lifting
of the travel advisories to Malindi. For a long time, Britain, US had
imposed restrictions for their people to visit Kenya's coast," Magweru
said.
"However, we are
now interested in seeing more local tourists visiting our countries
within the region so that we are able to sustain ourselves during time
of reduced international tourist arrivals."
Brian Kaddu, a
luxury travel consultant at Rwanda's Uber Luxe Safaris, said the Central
African state is eying promoting domestic tourism in the region even as
they look for foreign tourists.
He says the travel
firm is currently looking at sharing contacts with its counterparts
across the region and the continent to ease handling of extension trips
for tourists that visit the East African Community. So far, Uber Luxe
Safaris has partnered with sandrick travels and Tropical ice in Kenya
and Tanzania, respectively.
The Pearl of Africa
Tourism Expo is an annual event in the East African region organized by
Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) bringing together travel agents, tour
operators, hoteliers, destination managers and other service providers
along the tourism value chain, aimed at raising the profile of
Destination Uganda both domestically and regionally.
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