Travel alerts dent JKIA foreign passenger traffic

Jomo Kenyatta International Airport reported a 12.2 per cent drop in foreign passenger arrivals in the first half of the year as the effects of the West’s travel warnings weigh down on the tourism sector.

Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics show that foreign arrivals at Kenya’s main airport dropped to 358,977 passengers in the six months to June, down from 409,130 in the same period last year.

The bureau attributed the drop to the travel advisories issued against travel to the country over retaliatory attacks from terrorist group Al-Shabaab over Kenya’s military deployment in Somalia.

Moi Airport in Mombasa, a tourist magnet, was not been spared as it reported a 20 per cent drop in foreign arrivals in the firs half of 2014 to 69,246 passengers.

This has cut the hotel occupancy level at the coast to below 20 per cent during the high season, which starts in July, when hotels operate at more 90 per cent occupancy.

Daily Nation 

UM– USEKE.RW