Due to a growing demand in the UAE market for both safaris and beach vacations as well as growing trade ties between the two countries, tourists arriving from the UAE to Kenya are way up.
Arrivals to Kenya over the first 6 months of 2015 have almost doubled compared to 2014, according to data received from a regular source based in Nairobi. During the first 6 months of this year, some 24,462 visitors from the UAE came to Kenya, up from 13,782 a year ago.
When Kenya missed attending the Arabian Travel Market last year with an official stand, Houston Marketing swiftly stepped in and offered Kenyan tourism companies space, paving the way for an official return of Kenya this year and clearly resulting in growing visitor numbers.
Kenya is connected to the UAE with multiple daily flights from 3 UAE airports. Kenya Airways serves Dubai daily while Emirates flies twice a day to Nairobi. Etihad offers 7 flights a week from Abu Dhabi under a codeshare arrangement with Kenya Airways, and Air Arabia also has a daily service from Sharjah to Nairobi. None of the Gulf airlines, however, serves Mombasa, a matter of hot argument at present within the Kenyan tourism fraternity which demands from their government the opening up of landing rights to boost visitor numbers to the coast.
The UAE’s overall standing in arrivals to Kenya for the first 6 months of 2015 in percentage terms has risen even further, from 3.2 percent over the same period last year to 7 percent this year.
