Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala disclosed that tourism earned Ksh47 billion in the last six months, adding that things are looking up as the sector moves into the high season.
The Cabinet Secretary who was speaking during the historic State House Tourism Summit held at State House, Mombasa, added that the tourism sector will earn the country Ksh 100 billion this year.
The summit “attracted over 200 million impressions on social media,” the government website reported. The summit brought together stakeholders from across the country to dialogue on ways to boost the growth of the industry.
Mr Balala affirmed that the tourism industry is on a path to full recovery, saying figures show a positive trend with a 14 percent growth recorded since the beginning of the year.
“Overall, we are seeing some progress in the sector,” Mr Balala said. “Our focus is the full recovery by June 2018.”
The Tourism CS added that the Government has focused on improving security, infrastructure, and marketing in its plan to invigorate the industry.
“These are key enablers that will accelerate the recovery of the tourism sector Balala said.
Mr Balala also disclosed that the Government has pumped Ksh 100 billion in infrastructure development in the coast region alone adding that the budget for tourism marketing and promotion has more than doubled from Ksh608 million to Ksh1.5 billion this year.
According to the official statement on the government site, “the Government has taken a number of other steps to make Kenya an affordable destination. These include waiving visa fees for children under 16 years, reducing park entry fees, duty exemption on all construction materials for renovation in the tourism sector while VAT on the service charge to an employee has also been removed.”