By Linah Benyawa and Philip Mwakio

The wave of grenade attacks on civilians, fears of abductions and attacks by pirates, have triggered massive cancellations of European chartered flights bringing tourists to Coastal tourism circuit.

Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) and Mombasa Coast Tourist Association (MCTA) have published figures of recent trends in tourism. It shows a pattern of decline in a sector that accounts for 63 per cent of Kenya’s total earnings. KTB links the fall to “negative occurrences which have been happening at the Lamu archipelago.”

Although the organisations did not mention the threat session by Mombasa Republican Council, it is believed its activities at the Coast that have worried investors and the State as well, do also have a bearing on the downturn.

The statistics come from a comparative study of tourist arrivals by air and sea or cruise ships in the region for the first three months of both 2011 and 2012.

MCTA’s study is based on reports received from specific air charter firms. Both reports attribute cancellation of these private flights, which represent the bulk of tourist arrivals to the Kenyan coast through Moi International Airport (MIA) Mombasa, to security concerns and negative publicity as well as other global factors.

To mitigate these new losses at the Coast, KTB is pressuring the Government to step up security, and is also planning to open up new tourist circuits in Rift Valley and Northern Kenya.

According to Mr Muriithi Ndegwa, the KTB Managing Director, growth in arrival figures through MIA has been minimal (this year) and this can be attributed to the “misinterpreted presence of Kenya Defence Forces in Somalia”.  KDF forces entered Somalia last October and it is during this time that arrivals reduced.

“Mombasa was also affected in the earlier part of the year (2012) as a result of negative occurrences which have been happening in the Lamu archipelago in the course of 2011,” KTB explained. Last year terrorists from Somalia raided tourist resorts and kidnapped or killed several British and French tourists.

According to the KTB data, no tourist has arrived in Kenya’s coastal waters by cruise ship this year, compared to 586 between January and March last year, attributing the decline to fears of piracy and insecurity in the region.

MIA, the hub of Kenyan tourist charter flights from Europe, has lost more than five of its regular charters this year, according to the association that released its findings on Friday. MCTA cited recent grenade attacks in Mombasa and Mtwapa and threats by Somalia’s Al Shabaab as a leading cause of the decline.

According to MCTA chairman Mohamed Hersi, the economic crunch that has affected Greece, Spain and the recent change of government in France negatively influenced the level of travel by tourists from those countries, but local and regional insecurity has played a role in the fall.

“The frequent attacks (by terrorists) are worrying, and we as the tourism stakeholders are pleading with the Government to beef up security before things get out of hand,” he went on.

Charter flights, which have ceased operations, according to Hersi, include Corsair from France, with Air Berlin from Germany down to one weekly flight from its initial two. He said TUI UK that operated out of Manchester in the UK has pulled out, leaving only the one that originates from London.

Swiss-based Edelweiss is also said to be considering stopping its flights while another British operated airline — Monarch — has pulled out altogether, and will not be resuming soon until 2014, according to Hersi.

The only relief for the region’s tourism, according to Hersi, is chartered flights operated by TUI Nordic — which ferries in visitors from Sweden and Finland. It started operating on the Mombasa route last year, and is still active to date.

Hersi addressed a special session of members of MCTA during its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Nyali International Beach Hotel over the weekend.

He said Kenyan hoteliers should encourage tourists to travel to Kenya on Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Rwandair, Precision Air of Tanzania and Uganda Airlines, which fly to the Coast.

Hersi added it was also encouraging that award-winning Qatar Airways is keen on starting flights to Mombasa.

And according to KTB’s data, XL Airline Charters cancelled its flights this February.

The data also shows that comparatively, tourist arrivals this year through JKIA in Nairobi grew in the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year. However, the same does not reflect on the data sourced from Mombasa’s airport.

Total tourist arrivals for the whole country for the first quarter of this year by air and sea was 312,258 compared to 313,691 in the same period in 2011. This shows a 0.5 per cent decline, according to KTB.

During the same period JKIA’s share grew by 8.8 per cent to record 239,523 arrivals, compared to 2011 when it registered 220,097 visitors. Mombasa airport received 72,735 visitors this year, compared to 93,008 in 2011, a 21.8 per cent decline.

 “Arrival figures through the Mombasa airport have been on the decline” according to Ndegwa.

JKIA had the highest share of inbound traffic compared to MIA in 2012 with 77 per cent of the total arrivals coming in through this airport and 23 per cent through Mombasa.

Compared to the same period in 2011, 70 per cent of the total arrivals came in through JKIA, while 30 per cent arrived through Mombasa

KTB argues that MIA’s decline in arrivals could also be linked to JKIA’s improved performance and competition from other destinations like Zanzibar, Mauritius and Seychelles.

Lately the banned secessionist group, Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), has stepped up its calls for a boycott of the coming general election, fostering new jitters in the sector that was brought to its knees between 1997 and 2002 by terrorist raid on Israeli properties and staggered attacks by tribal militia.

Intelligence reports suggest wanted terrorist Emrah Erdogan is hiding in Coast Province, although on Friday, Hersi warned that tourism could suffer more from the separatist talk waged by MRC.

“If the grievances raised by MRC are not addressed soon, then things might get out of hand because in case of any tension, the tourism industry would be hurt as tourists would stop flying in,’’ he said.