NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 27 – International tourist arrivals into Moi International Airport, Mombasa has grown by 46 per cent in the past eight months.
Tourism Principal Secretary Joe Okudo attributes the growth to among other initiatives the Charter Incentives Program that he disclosed raised the number of chartered flights into the coast.
Between January and August this year, Moi International Airport (MIA) recorded arrivals of 84,286 visitors up from 57,588 recorded in the same period last year.
He spoke in Mombasa on Saturday while receiving visitors from TUI Belgium charter that brought in 150 tourists into Mombasa for a one-week tour of the Kenyan coast.
The weekly flight is also going to significantly increase the number of tourists from Belgium. The market last year recorded a 61 percent growth with 10,170 visitors up from 6,320 arrivals in 2016.
Belgium is ranked at number 10 in contribution of arrivals from the European market. Overall, the market share is at 0.9 percent of the total arrivals in both Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and MIA.
“We are keen on attracting more visitors from the market with ease of access through the connection to Kenya from Brussels via Netherlands (via Schipol), SWISS (Zurich) and Germany (via Frankfurt),” Okundu noted.
The PS noted that the success of the Charter Incentive Program has greatly helped re-position the Kenyan coast as a tourism hub pointing out that the support infrastructure such as roads, airports and airstrips within the region have complemented these milestones.
He said the just concluded SKAL Congress that brought together tourism professionals from 38 countries across the globe and the first to be held in Africa, has added to the positive profile we have continued to build as a destination.
“We are optimistic of maintaining this momentum in the coming months as we aim to achieve our target growth of tourist numbers by 17 percent at the end of year,” he added.