Tone down political rhetoric or risk obstructing Tourism: CS Balala

The interminable political bickering could have a demoralizing effective on tourism sector, Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has said.

Balala Wednesday urged politicians to “tone down” their political indifferences if the country’s key sectors such as tourism are to thrive.

“Handshake has immensely contributed to the growth of tourism sector, but now what needs to happen is the ongoing political undertones, which we believe should come down,” said Balala.

The political temperatures have been rising by the day.  In fact, were it not that 2022 is a calendar year, visitors to Kenya would be excused to think that 2022 is the name of a popular person or place or even food.

Yet 2022 is just the year for the next scheduled elections. Most importantly, these are the elections that will decide who becomes Kenya’s president after Uhuru Kenyatta completes his second and final term as the fourth president of the Republic of Kenya.

Balala was speaking today during the announcement of a partnership pact between Express Travel Group, one of East Africa’s premier travel management companies and Leaders Network, North America’s largest travel agency organization with more than 42,000 travel advisors, as part of a major expansion of Travel Leaders’ international presence.

The highly-charged political temperatures, according to Balala would disrupt progress made in growing the sector thus far.

Last year saw the country register the best growth ever, with the country’s tourists hitting the 2million mark for the first time – and the ongoing activities in the industry such as refurbishments, joint ventures and partnerships seen as possible reasons to surpass that fete according to Tourism CS.

“I want to be realistic, our hope is to grow by double digit growth and hopefully by the end of the year we will have positive figures to announce,” he said, adding that other areas the ministry is keen to focus on in a bid to improve the sector will be to end the usage of single use plastics (bottle-waters, straws and plastic-related products) by hotels.

The ministry in partnership with relevant stakeholders is targeting a stern one-year notice to end the use of such products but will do so upon consultation with the private sector including the Kenya Association of Manufactures (KAM), “without affecting them.”

The ministry is targeting a July 4^th 2020 target in which such laws and regulations should be effected.