Phyllis Kandie, the Tourism Secretary has formed a team to boost the tourism business during this time that the hotels at the Coast are closing down due to lack of visitors. She said the task force is mandated to market Kenya and address issues raised by various partners and that they are working with governors from all the affected regions and the Ministry of Internal Security so that the thousands of tourists that have left can be attracted back to Kenya.
She also added that the crime at the Kenyan Coast has badly affected business and this was followed the travel advisories issued by different countries asking their citizens to stay out of Kenya. A lot of damage was done and all agencies are doing everything possible to address the current situation.
She assured international tourists that Kenya is very safe, this was during her speech at the two-day governors’ meeting at the Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha. The CS said though the Coast package was still down, the Safari package, which has been embraced by domestic tourists, has picked up.
Meanwhile, farmers will have to wait longer before the government signs the long awaited Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union which has been lagging for more than a year due some handicaps in the process like a number of parties not agreeing on export taxes, rules of origin and human rights issues and governance, leading to anxiety mainly in the floriculture sector..
She said some of the pending issues are at ministerial level but are working with our partners in the East African Community to have the agreement signed in time otherwise the country’s flower exports, which are currently zero-rated will then be charged with an 8% duty in the EU market which is not good.
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