Kenya welcomes back tourists
Matt Brown, The National, June 16, 2008
LAKE NAIVASHA, Kenya - A group of photographers from Abu Dhabi wrapped up a 10-day African safari on Saturday with dinner on the shore of this hippopotamus-filled Rift Valley lake, good news for Kenyan tourism officials who see the Middle East as an emerging market.
The group, which included three Britons, two Emiratis and a Jordanian, came here to shoot some of Kenya’s world famous wildlife. They are part of Light Chasers, an Abu Dhabi-based amateur photography club that claims 300 members.
A python almost got in the window of their safari van and a charging elephant narrowly missed the vehicle, while Ali al Junaibi, who works for the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research, was held hostage in his tent by a group of rogue baboons. Aside from that everything went smoothly on the trip, and everyone said they had a wonderful time and would be coming back to East Africa.
“It’s an easier holiday than you expect it will be,” said Melanie Jones, a Briton who is taking a year off work to live in Abu Dhabi. “It’s not challenging at all.”
All of which is good news for Kenya’s beleaguered tourism industry. The industry, worth US$1 billion (Dh3.67bn) a year, by far the largest sector of the country’s economy, was hit hard after violence rocked the country at the beginning of the year.
But there are signs the Kenyan tourism industry is recovering.
“We are targeting the Middle East market,” said Anne Kanini, a public relations officer with the Kenya Tourist Board. “That market is looking very strong.”
The Light Chasers had begun to make plans for their Kenyan safari when a disputed presidential election sparked a wave of tribal violence that killed 1,500 and displaced more than 300,000. As the violence spread in January, many tourists cancelled their Kenyan holidays. The Light Chasers almost decided on a European photographic trip, but then reconsidered.
“In January, when things started to go wrong, we organised a Europe trip,” said Derek English, a British civil engineer who has worked in Abu Dhabi for 14 years. “After a few months, we decided that Kenya would be more exciting. We came to the conclusion that on safari we would be perfectly safe.”
East Africa has long been a favourite destination for different kinds of shooters from the UAE. Big game hunting, although outlawed in Kenya, is popular in Tanzania. The royal family owns a big game hunting reserve there, and a Tanzanian delegation usually attends the Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exposition.
Kenyan tourism officials recently marketed the country at the Arabian Travel Market trade show in Dubai, and the country hosted a group of travel writers and tour operators from the UAE, according to Ms Kanini.
“The reception has been excellent,” she said. “People [in the UAE] know about travel and they have a lot of disposable income from the oil industry to spend on holidays.”
Kenya is an attractive destination for UAE tourists because of its proximity – only a five-hour plane flight away, Ms Kanini said. There are no direct flights from Abu Dhabi, so the Light Chasers flew to Doha, then took a Qatar Airways flight to Nairobi.
From Dubai, Emirates Airlines has daily nonstop flights to Nairobi and Kenya Airways flies the route twice a day. Emirates offers package tours to Kenya that include airfare, accommodation and game drives for a discounted price, according to Sally Sawe, an Emirates spokesman in Nairobi.
“East Africa is an important market for Emiratis,” she said. “People come here for safari.”
Obtaining a visa from the Kenyan embassy in Abu Dhabi is relatively easy, although it took Salah Alkhatib, the Jordanian on the trip, six weeks for his visa to be processed and he received it one day before the trip. For residents of most countries, a Kenyan tourist visa costs $50.
The Light Chasers’ 10-day safari cost around $3,000 per person, including airfare. The group stayed in luxury accommodation and visited some of Kenya’s best game parks, including Samburu, Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha.
The photographers captured lions, rhinos, elephants and cheetahs with their telephoto lenses. Only Lee al Romaithi, an Emirati project co-ordinator for Gasco, managed to snap a shot of a leopard coming down a tree.
“The wildlife is amazing,” he said. “We have been speechless since we arrived.”
For Bill Watts, a British superintendent for an Abu Dhabi shipping company, the trip fulfilled a lifelong dream. “I have wanted to come to Africa to see the wildlife since I was 10.”
With Kenya just a short flight away, some of the group members said they might return more often. “There’s no reason we can’t come back here for a long weekend,” Mr English said.