Kenyans feel the pinch as wave of terror hurts tourism

Kenya: On the expansive Diani beach in Kwale County, Ndioo Wambua, a curio seller, takes a deep afternoon nap on a rug spread on the white sand.

Normally, Wambua and his colleagues would be busy ushering tourists passing by the beach to purchase their wares.

But not this time round. When The Standard on Saturday checked on him last Tuesday, the curio seller had not sold a single item in a week amid a high terror threat and multiple travel advisories issued to tourists in the south coast.

“The situation here is extremely bad. I make up to Sh10, 000 on a good day but I have not sold a single curio for a whole week,” said Wambua, who had just been awoken from a deep slumber by his colleagues.

Having operated on this beach for over 10 years, he hopes the situation will improve soon. It is from selling curios that he has been able to pay school fees for his first born who is in university, the second born who is in Form Four and fending for his entire family.

“We almost entirely depended on white tourists in our business; domestic tourists account for one out of every 10 clients and will always buy the cheapest item,” he explains.

Wambua is among thousands of Kenyans staring at hard economic times as the tourism industry continues to reel under the weight of terror threats, and a low season. Though the Government has tried to put on a brave face following the massive evacuation of European nationals from among other countries the UK, France and the US in the wake of travel warnings to the Kenyan coast, things are not as rosy as imagined.

 In the south coast alone, it is estimated that over 31,500 people are going to lose their source of income.

According to Kwale County Executive member in charge of Tourism, Mr Adam Sheikh, 1,500 of these are those directly employed in the sector while 30,000 the rest heavily depend on tourism for a livelihood.

Closure inevitable

These include among others farmers, suppliers, fishermen as well as individuals who provide transport and housing services to the sector.

Diani beach best paints the picture. Of the 36 therapists operating from 14 massage structures on the sea front, Joakim Mboha, is the only who had not closed down when we visited.

“You can just see for yourself,” he retorted.

Within hotels, the impact of the terror threat during the low season is being deeply felt.

Harald Kampa, the Diani Sea Resort Managing Director, noted that since the evacuation started, 125 tourists, mainly from the UK, were chartered back to their country.

“We are currently having fewer than 20 guests and since Saturday we only have one booking,” noted Kampa.

 The hotel has 350 rooms and 400 employees from its two units who could also face the chop if the situation continues. The resort, which has an annual hotel apprentice for 30 local trainees, has shelved the July 2014 apprentice scheme.

Baobab Beach Resort on the other hand lost around Sh26 million after around 156 tourists were evacuated by Friday last week and has since closed one of its units.

The remaining units are Baobab with 190 rooms and Maridadi with 120 rooms and though slim, the hotel is lucky to have 200 guests.

“The advisories are uncalled for because Diani was mentioned to be safe and this is killing the industry,” Baobab General Manager Sylvester Mbandi said in a phone interview.

 At Amani Tiwi already 60 tourists have left but thanks to domestic tourism, 56 are still around.

Prior to the advisory, the hotel, which usually operates with 300 staff, had 180 staff which reduced to 95. According to General Manager Imtyaz Mirza, the hotel has lost over Sh15 million in the past few days.

Though the total exact figure of evacuations is yet to be released, the total number of tourists evacuated from the three hotels is around 341. The total number of hotels on the South Coast beach is around 29.

Some Safari (tour) agents like the TJ Safaris which is among the biggest in South Coast closed shop on Friday after getting more than 80 booking cancellations that ran to November.

JT Safaris reservation personnel Ms Mercy Muchiri said the closure was inevitable as there was totally no business. The agency mostly deals with tourists from England.

While admitting that the number of lay-offs in the tourism sector has been high, the Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers attributes this to a chain of circumstances that have conspired against the sector.

Mr Sam Ikwaye, the association’s coast executive officer, says the current situation has its roots in 2013.

“As a result, the low season came in quite early this year and the situation has been very bad since February, when bed occupancy stood at between 30 percent and 40 percent. The travel advisories have come right in the middle of a low season,” Ikwaye says adding tourism is a labour-intensive industry and many people have been affected.

The chief executive expresses fears that the current situation might eat into the high season and calls not just for the cancellation of the advisories but also for the government to up its game and address insecurity.

“We have a product that is still alive and must do everything to safeguard it,” he says.

Arthur Mahasi, a tourism consultant, says more jobs are likely to be lost in the coming months.

“It speaks volumes when multiple conferences are being cancelled during the low season. We have been hit below the belt and it might take some time before we recover,” he says.

Mahasi says Kenya’s image as a tourist destination is going down the drain and it might soon be a toll order to convince tourists to visit Kenya.

“Kenya is currently not the ideal holiday destination and we must do something about the security situation,” he states.