Shore up efforts to save tourism sector, hoteliers told

Kenya: Players in the hotel industry have been asked to double their efforts to save the sector from collapse.

Nairobi Hill Park Hotel Manager Godfrey Mwirigi appealed to the hoteliers and other stakeholders to intensify marketing strategies so as to lift the dwindling fortunes of the industry.

Speaking during a Gala Night at the hotel, Mr Mwirigi said marketing of the country's tourism industry has been hampered by insecurity challenges and travel bans imposed by the country's traditional source markets.

He petitioned stakeholders in the industry to aggressively market their facilities and build more coherent approaches to resuscitate the troubled industry.

Better marketing

"Our efforts are geared towards better marketing approaches to keep the business on top gear. We can only tackle the challenges in the industry when we re-energise ourselves to remove the few hiccups that affect our operations across the region," Mwirigi stated.

He said some foreign source countries, especially the US and Britain, have issued travel advisories to their citizens due to terrorism threats, a position that has adversely affected the industry's performance and directly resulted in massive loss of business.

Mwirigi also asked the local media to uphold responsible reporting on sensitive security issues.

  "Sometimes when a section of the media reports some isolated cases of terrorism threats, what sticks in the mind of a foreign tourist is that the entire country is under siege," Mwirigi said.

A top official recently defended the US travel warnings on Kenya but added that "any impact this has had, was truly regretted".

The comments by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield came after The New York Times quoted a US official in Nairobi as saying of the travel warning: "Our policy doesn't make much sense."