Kenya has moved to level 1 travel health notice from the previous level three in what the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) is a low level of COVID-19 infections and increased availability of vaccines in the country.
The USA State Department is advising US Citizens that the risk of contracting COVID-19 and developing severe symptoms may be lower if one is fully vaccinated with an FDA authorized vaccine.
The downgrade is from the previous level three where US citizens were advised to reconsider travel plans to Kenya due high infections and the risk of terrorist attacks.
The downgrade to level one is set to boost summer bookings from the USA which accounted for the largest share of foreign visitors to Kenya in 2021 at 136,981.
Kenya’s tourism industry has started to pull out of its deep COVID-19-induced slump as local travellers take advantage of lower prices, but foreign visitor numbers are still well below pre-pandemic levels.
The East African nation expects the sector, typically one of its top sources of foreign exchange, to earn KSh 173 billion this year, up 18.5% from last year, the government said.
“The recovery seems to have begun,” George Gitonga, the acting chief executive of the state-run Tourism Research Institute, told the media recently after the figures were released.
Earnings slumped to KSh 88.6 billion in 2020, officials said, as governments around the world restricted the movement of people, including through the closure of air spaces, to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
They bounced back to KSh 146 billion in 2021, with the number of hotel nights occupied by Kenyan travellers doubling during the period, said Najib Balala, the tourism minister.
Local resorts, which normally concentrate their marketing efforts on foreign tourists, were forced to turn to the domestic market by the pandemic, offering cut rates to entice holidaymakers.
Foreign visitor numbers were still sharply lower than pre-pandemic levels, at just under 870,500 last year against 2 million in 2019. They are forecast to reach 1.03 million in 2022.
From safaris in the Maasai Mara and other wildlife reserves to holidays on Indian Ocean beaches, Kenya’s tourism industry contributes about 10% of economic output and employs over 2 million people.
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