Tourism partners laud single East African Community tourist visa plan

By PHILIP MWAKIO

Mombasa County: Tourism stakeholders have welcomed the decision by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda to fast track issuance of a single tourist visa.

According to the Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association (MCTA) Executive Officer Millie Odhiambo, the move will help attract more tourists to the region.

Rwanda is spearheading the move to implement single visa issuance, which is expected to be rolled out by January next year. Both Tanzania and Burundi are expected to join in the process.

“We have waited for too long and protocols governing the operations of the East African Community (EAC) allow for member states to sanction such a move to open up the region to more tourists,’’ she said.

President Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenya is working with her neighbours to come up with a single visa that would enable tourists to visit all the five EAC member states.

While commending the President for promising additional funding to the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB), Odhiambo said lack of adequate funding undermined efforts to sell  Kenya to the rest of the world.

“We have equally competing destinations like Tanzania, South Africa, Namibia and Rwanda, which are luring tourists. We need to wake up to the reality and allocate more funds to help Kenya bounce back as the number one tourist destination of choice,’’ she said. Uhuru spoke last week at KICC when he opened the 3rd edition of the Magical Kenya Travel Expo. More than 150 companies from all parts of the world were represented at the tourism exhibition.

Domestic product

The president underscored the importance of tourism, saying it generates around 12 per cent of Kenya’s gross domestic product and accounts for about 9 per cent of the country’s total formal employment.

He said his administration is focused on enhancing the country’s competitiveness in the sector to increase the number of tourists visiting Kenya each year.

“Specifically, we have committed to promote Kenya as a destination, rather than a stop-over, and to attract at least three million tourists annually,” he said.

The president called for additional investment in hotels and other tourism-related infrastructure as government scales up inter-connectivity through port, rail and road.