Nairobi — The tourism industry earned Kenya Sh14.7 billion between January and March 2006.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) managing director, Dr Achieng Ongong'a, said the performance represented an 8 per cent increment over last year's first quarter earnings of Sh13.6 billion.

Ongong'a, who was released the results at KTB offices on Thursday, projected that the sector's annual earnings will this year rise by 10 per cent to Sh56 billion.

Last year, tourism earned Kenya Sh49 billion. In the period under review, an additional 49,237 arrivals were recorded, bringing the total number to 490,059, equivalent to an 11.2 per cent increment over 2005.

Ongong'a was accompanied by among others, the KTB chairman, Jake Grieves-Cook, and Research and Development manager Kennedy Manyalla.

"The message we are sending out there is that we should maintain the growth ," said Grieves-Cook.

This year, Kenya shifted its marketing focus from mass tourism to a high value destination. Grieves-Cook said this can be achieved especially through continued improvement in infrastructure and security.

Manyalla said Kenya had enough capacity to sustain high value visitors.

"It is gratifying to note that there have been great improvement in the quality of roads, and that insecurity has also reduced considerably," he said.

He asked the Government to "equip to better degree" the 300 Tourist Police Unit, who are now backed by a 24-hour private sector tourism safety unit.