East African Business Week

Nairobi, Kenya - At least 1.1 million tourists visited Kenya last year, representing a 15.1 % increase compared to 2009, according to the Ministry of Tourism figures released last week.
Over this period, according to the statistics, the sector earned a total of Kshs 73.68 billion, an increase of 18 % compared to 2009 while the number of cross-border tourists from neighbouring Tanzania and Uganda stood at 700,000.
And although the Ministry did not meet the 1.2 million tourists target it had set, last year's arrivals surpassed the 2007 performance which closed at 1,048,732 visitors translating into an increase of 4.5 %.
Releasing the results in Nairobi, Tourism Minister Mr. Najib Balala, said a total of 1,095,842 international tourists visited Kenya last year, which when rounded off was put at 1.1 visitors, up from 952,481 in 2009.
He said following last year's arrivals, 2010 now becomes the best year in Kenya's tourism history in relation to international arrivals by air and sea.
The highest source market by air and sea were from the United Kingdom at 174,051 tourists followed by the United States (107,842), Italy (87,694), Germany (63,011) and France (50,039).
Despite UK and Germany posting impressive numbers, the two traditional source markets, Balala said, have not recovered from the effects of the economic crisis in Europe and accounted for a 15 % and 5% decline respectively.
According to the Minister, India emerged as the best new market with 47,611 arrivals followed by China (28,480) and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He said the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB),  would in 2011 concentrate on marketing these new markets which also include Russia in the hope of capturing visitors who traditionally visit Egypt and Tunisia which are currently experiencing political turmoil.
"We have to invest in the new markets by allocating more resources instead of concentrating on the old source markets," said the Minister.
Mr. Balala said the United States was the first key source market to recover from the global financial crisis while Uganda topped the African market arrivals with 33,900 arrivals followed by South Africa (33,076) and Tanzania (30,076).
In total, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport registered 862,586 arrivals in 2010 I comparison to 232,698 arrivals through Moi International Airport, Mombasa. For JKIA, this was a growth of 13 % over 2009's figures of 763,916. In contrast, Mombasa Airport's 2010 figures reflect a growth of 32 % over 2009's figures of 176,469.
He said despite the impressive growth this year, poor infrastructure including persistent breakdowns of the two ferries at the Mombasa crossing and delays at the country's airports continued to be some of the setbacks affecting the tourism sector.
Only 508 visitors arrived by cruise ships last year, compared to 12,000 in 2009, something the Minister attributed to rising piracy off the Somalia Coast.