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Tourists look at giraffes at the Masai Mara game reserve, 340km from the capital Nairobi - Source: Reuters
Kenya's tourism earnings rose to $1.1 billion million in 2009
from $98 million a year earlier, helped by a 30% rise in arrivals,
the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) said.
Tourism, the third largest foreign exchange earner after
horticulture and tea exports, was one of the hardest-hit sectors by
the country's bloody post-election crisis in early 2008.
"For 2010, we are looking to recover to our record growth in 2007," KTB Chairman Jake Grieves-Cook told a news conference.
"2009 was a year when KTB was very active."
The sector earned $1.2 billion in 2007, the best year in the
sector's history, before bloody post-election violence and the
global economic downturn hurt the sector.
KTB said the sector beat the rest of the continent which recorded a
five percent growth, while worldwide the sector contracted by four
percent.
The hotel and tourism sector contributes less than two percent
directly to output in east Africa's biggest economy, but the
indirect influence on the economy is much bigger.
Grieves-Cook said the board would start airing advertisements for
Kenya's tourist spots on two additional international television
channels.
KTB said its leading source for visitors in 2009 was Europe, with
456,433 out of 952,841 visitors to the country.
