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Kenya will need to rely on discounts
Comment by Jeremy Skidmore (www.jeremyskidmore.com)
Happy New Year to everyone, although those selling holidays to Kenya must wonder whether there is any chance of that.
The big question is, what will the long term effect be on tourism to the country? Severe, I suspect, if the situation continues for much longer.
First of all, a word about the Foreign Office’s involvement.
As usual, in these situations, it has come in for stick in some quarters over its changing advice.
I accept that the advice earlier in the week to avoid all but essential travel to the centres of Mombasa and Nairobi, quickly followed by a blanket ban on all travel, was initially confusing.
But the Foreign Office is in an impossible situation; too cautious and it is accused of destroying tourism and being the arm of a nanny state. But if it turns a blind eye to trouble and holidaymakers are killed in violent clashes, all hell will break loose.
More than 300 people have died in increasingly tribal clashes across the country since President Mwai Kibaki was re-elected on December 27. Frankly, visiting Kenya just isn’t worth the risk.
The situation is being constantly reviewed, with the possibility of tours resuming on Saturday. Let’s hope the disruption is short-lived, otherwise Kenya’s tourism problems won’t be.
Some say that violent clashes, just like bombs and terrorism, can happen anywhere and that people are becoming hardened to such things.
I don’t agree. Holidaymakers have so much choice and do not want to take a risk with their precious trip abroad. Many will already be crossing it off their list for 2008.
Surprisingly, though, people tend to forget their fear when the prices drop (just as they did with air travel after September 11).
If past experience is anything to go by, hotel prices will be slashed and Kenya will become the bargain of the year in an attempt to get it back on the map.
Kenya’s tourism chiefs are all too aware of the eight year slump which followed a similar outbreak of violence.
The Foreign Office advisory has led to the collapse of Kenya’s tourism industry overnight. Unfortunately, history shows that it takes a lot longer, and much financial hardship, to make it recover.
Jeremy Skidmore
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