20091222
allafrica

Nairobi — On the face of it, the news on the tourism front is encouraging. This is because, despite the slump occasioned by the post-election violence and the global economic crunch, which made international tourists stay away from our attractions, the industry hasn't exactly collapsed.

However, leading hoteliers and other stakeholders claim this slump has been more than adequately addressed by the rising numbers of domestic tourists.

This cannot be true. Kenya has been trying to rely on the fickle and unstable tourism industry as the mainstay of its economy for too many years, with the result that any unforeseen occurrence is enough to make foreign holiday-makers stay away with their precious dollars, euros, yens and yuans.

Besides fears of political violence and general insecurity, both of which are somewhat exaggerated, there are many other reasons why foreign tourists have been bypassing this country and heading further south to Tanzania and South Africa.

It is not true that all tourists enjoy impassable roads, our infamous beach boys, Maasai "warriors", and such-like things. They also do enjoy creature comforts and reasonable accommodation charges.

Our tourism stakeholders would be deceiving themselves if they concluded the domestic tourist can take the place his or her foreign counterpart. We've simply not been selling this country smartly enough.