A new survey on local, regional and international travel based on a 2014 bookings by Jovago reveals that Nigeria is the dominating African tourist customer of Kenya while the United Kingdom takes lead in international bookings destined for Kenya.
As the results indicate, with the new wave of development in infrastructure, introduction of new tourism products besides the traditional safari and culture and emergence of new attractions, Kenya is in no doubt aiming for the prize when it comes to Tourism in Africa.
The Kenyan Tourism Industry maintains the stand as the principal source of foreign exchange as well as one of the main social economic hub, contributing to more than the global Average at 12.1 percent (WTTC 2013).
Domestic Travellers
Capital city Nairobi stands undoubtedly as a major business hub as most of the domestic travellers – a whopping 79 percent – originate from there. Mombasa had 6 percent of travellers heading for Kenyan destinations while Eldoret takes 3 percent. The other cities spread across Kenya registered a combined 12 percent.
Unsurprisingly, Nairobi is the most popular destination for domestic travellers taking in 25 percent of the total in-bound bookings, Naivasha is also a preferred destination as 21 percent of the travellers go there. Mombasa and Eldoret are also respectively popular destinations amongst other cities across Kenya.
International Travellers
Our survey shows that the bulk of international travellers to Kenya are from the Nigeria closely followed by the United Kingdom. Travellers from the United States and France rank 3rd and 4th respectively and Uganda comes in 5th.
On the other hand, the most popular destinations for Kenyans are The Netherlands, closely followed by United Arab Emirates. South Africa and the United Kingdom come in 3rd and 4th place respectively and Belgium comes in 5th!
Most Remote Booking
The most remote bookings made to hotels in Kenya spanned from across the world. The Nordic island of Iceland was one of the locations from which bookings to Kenya were made! Remote bookings were also made from Georgia, Afghanistan and Australia but the farthest in air miles was from Melbourne, Australia (11507 kilometers).
Most Visited Countries in East Africa
Kenya and Tanzania top this list closely followed by Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda.
By Lilian Gaitho
