ETurbo News The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) pointed the blame at “dilapidated” infrastructure for Kenya’s tourism industry continuing to lose out on millions of shillings in revenue.
Industry stakeholders now want the government to engage them in measures that will see an immediate improvement of infrastructure in tourist circuits, KBC said in a recent report.
According to KBC, Kenya’s tourism industry “contributed close to 50 billion shillings in foreign exchange earnings for the year ending December 2005.”
However this revenue could more than double if roads leading to tourist attraction sites are improved.
The chairman of the Kenya Tourism Federation, William Kamunge, told KBC that bad roads still exists in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve despite bringing in close to 40 million shillings in monthly collections.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Kenya Association of Tour operators Mia Danson told KBC tour packages are increasingly becoming expensive as vehicle maintenance costs are passed down to the tourists.
Despite its high potential, Kenya may continue loosing out to countries like South Africa if it does not pay attention to infrastructural development, KBC stated. |