Some 182,000 tourists visited Kenya in January, which is the first time the arrivals have bounced back to the highs seen before the Covid-19 pandemic that hit in March 2020.
This is higher than the 171,000 tourists who visited the country in January 2020, which signals that not only has the sector fully recovered from the pandemic but has surpassed the pre-Covid numbers.
The sector was one of the most badly hit by travel restrictions that cut the numbers to just 60,000 in January 2021 before rising to 91,000 in 2022 and 151,000 in 2023.
Covid-19 plunged the sector to a near halt in 2020, with the country receiving just 565,000 visitors that year, according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data sourced from the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB).
But as countries eased travel restrictions, the number of tourists to Kenya went up steadily to 871,000 in 2021, helping the recovery of thousands of jobs in the hospitality sector.
This trend has continued over the last two years, with the arrivals rising to 1.492 million in 2022 and a high of 1.95 million in 2023.
“Tourist arrivals improved by 27.6 percent in the 12 months to January 2024 compared to a similar period in 2023, and were 20.3 percent higher in January 2024 compared to January 2023,” said the CBK.
This has helped to boost the growth of the accommodation and food service sectors, which grew by 26 percent in the third quarter of 2023 compared to 16.9 percent in the previous year.
“The growth was partly attributed to accelerated visitor arrivals witnessed during the Africa Climate Summit Conference held in September 2023, coupled with the country’s stabilization from effects of uncertainties associated with elections in the third quarter of 2022,” said the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
The country seeks to diversify its tourism offerings from wildlife and safari towards showcasing “Kenya’s rich cultural heritage, pristine beaches, adventure tourism, and emerging markets such as eco-tourism”.
