Business Daily (Nairobi)
Wangui Maina
1 May 2008
The European Union has finally released the money it had withheld last year in a bid to help marketing bodies promote the tourism sector following a slump caused by post-election violence.
The Minister for Tourism, Mr Najib Balala, said the Sh607 million from the EU will help cater for marketing activities like an upcoming campaign in Europe.
The money, which had been negotiated and allocated for different programmes, will see Kenya Tourism Board have a larger kitty to carry out its marketing mandate.
The EU had promised to fund the Tourism Sustainability Programme (TSP)- a project for promoting new tourism products across the country. But the money has been channelled to marketing of Kenyan destinations after tourist arrivals in the country dropped late last year.
"We do not need a sustainability programme right now as we are focusing our efforts on the recovery programme," Mr Balala said.
The EU had set tough conditions before release of the tourism money over the last few years, constraining the country's efforts to market the destination.
The Kenyan government contributed over Sh200 million to the project as the sector waited for the EU to release its money.
Since 2002, the EU along with the government of Kenya financed various programmes in the tourism sector including marketing following the slow down in the sector in the late 90s.
During its formation Tourism Trust Fund (TTF) received Sh2.2 billion (€22 million) from the EU through the eighth European Development Fund in 2002.
In addition, the sector has also benefited from the Stabex (Stabilisation of Export sector) programme with Sh294 million (€3 million). Another €3 million was allocated for marketing programmes.
The balance from all these funds, part of which is what was recently released, is what will be channelled to the new marketing activities.
As part of marketing efforts organised by the sector, the minister will be touring Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK in the next few weeks meeting with major tour operators.
The four countries are key markets, with a charter plane from Sweden having agreed to resume flights to the country in October.
The Tourism minister along with the US ambassador to Kenya, Mr Michael Ranneberger, have also unveiled a committee comprising senior officers to look into issues of bureaucracies affecting growth in the US market.
"The group will look at ways of accelerating growth in the US market," Mr Ranneberger said.
The sector is currently making plans to tour the US as well as accompany the Prime Minister later in the year on his tour to the US.
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