With tourism, more can be done

Kenya is currently upbeat on the revival of her tourism fortunes and there are good indications for this. The resurgence of the tourism sector seen by the recent cruise ships docking and the chartered flights increment vis-à-vis the previous period, coupled with more arrivals after the lifting of travel advisories by the UK and US among others is encouraging.

The vigour by which the new Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has taken the all-too-familiar docket is indicative. The budgetary allocation by the Jubilee Government in 2015/2016 financial year has been a step in the right direction much as hitherto the funds had not fully gotten to the systems.However, some hard questions in light of the bigger economic dilemma the country is facing need to be addressed.

Looking at the Kenyan economic structure and the needs of the country such as is in capital goods the imports can only grow faster than exports. Manufacturing, which would have given the country much needed economic impetus, has a lot to fix.

It will take time to overcome some historical challenges such as cost of power, infrastructure and policy weaknesses over time or lack of focus.

With new discovered wealth in minerals and oil, the temptation would be to invest more in these already known lucrative sectors which after all are informed by established global order. Luckily for Kenya, it has proved to have a resilient economy despite the many shortcomings.

Considering that Africa is the next big economic frontier Kenya should be a lucky beautiful bride.

Nonetheless, there is need to look at tourism with open eyes and smell the coffee.