Kenya tourism suffers in post election violence

A Reuters report by Jeremy Lovell in London says that Kenya’s billion dollar tourist industry was hit by a wave of cancellations on Thursday as tribal violence swept the country after disputed elections.

Many European tour companies stopped sending clients to Kenya’s idyllic safari parks and beaches, dealing a blow to the East African nation’s main source of foreign exchange earnings.

British tour operators cancelled holidays to Kenya and said they would consider early repatriation for holiday makers already there even though the violence has so far spared the main vacation resorts.

“The resorts where they are staying haven’t been affected by the trouble but you can’t ignore Foreign Office advice and we are not doing so,” a British travel spokesman said.

About 290,000 Britons visit Kenya each year.

Some 300 people have been reported killed in clashes between supporters of President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, and many governments are warning against unnecessary travel to Kenya.

French travel agencies suspended trips to Kenya until January 18, the French Tour Operators’ Association, which represents more than 70 travel companies, said.

Hungarians, who have taken to beating the winter cold by visiting Kenya, were reported to be switching from the southern coastal report of Mombasa to Zanzibar because of the rioting.

Dutch operators were reported to be repatriating their holidaymakers and Belgium’s Jetair said it had suspended all travel packages to Kenya until mid-month.

Competitor Thomas Cook/Neckermann ran its weekly flight on Wednesday to Mombasa, but will only return on January 9 to pick them up.  “The situation there is very calm.”  “Most of the rioting is in the west.”  “ But the foreign ministry issued more negative travel advice so we have cancelled as of January 9.”  “ We will stop until the end of March,” a spokesman said.

Although the South African government has not advised against travel to Kenya, one agency said it was not promoting packages there.  “We haven’t been instructed to by the South African authorities but we are encouraging people not to go,” Lui Lemmer of the Cape Town-based Star Travel said. “I wouldn’t sell a trip to Kenya at the moment.”

A chartered Boeing 757 was set to leave Milan nearly empty for Mombasa late on Thursday after dozens cancelled their trips due to the violence.

Germany’s TUI said customers booked to arrive in Kenya in the next two weeks could change their bookings free of charge or cancel them.

Thomas Cook, Europe’s second-biggest travel company, said its flights to Mombasa had been cancelled.

But across the Atlantic the mood was quietly confident.  “We haven’t seen any cancellations,” said Jeannie Rodgers, president of United Travel Group, a boutique travel agency based near Philadelphia. 

“Kenya has been such a stable country for such a long time. All of us feel that that’s going to continue.”  “ But we do have to watch it,” she added.   About 100,000 Americans visited Kenya in 2007.

Additional reporting by Sylvia Westall and Rajiv Sekhri in Frankfurt, Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Harro ten Wolde in Amsterdam, Phillip Stewart in Rome, Gordon Bell in Johannesburg, Francois Murphy in Paris, Sandor Peto in Budapest and Chris Reiter in New York.

A Report by The Mole from Reuters