The Nation (Nairobi)
Mazera Ndurya and Jonathan Manyindo
2 November 2009
Nairobi — Hoteliers in Lamu are counting losses as most tourists cannot get to the island town after a bridge in the region was washed away by floods.
Most of the tourists visiting Lamu have been relying on road transport, which has now been disrupted by heavy rains that rendered a section of the road in Malindi impassable.
The general manager of Sunsail Hotel in Lamu, Mr Ali Bunu, told the Nation that the number of visitors to the historical town had gone down in the last few days since the onset of the El Nino rains.
"Our biggest problem now is accessibility to Lamu because there is only one flight connecting Nairobi to Lamu, through Malindi, which is not enough to meet demand.
"Most of the tourists in Lamu travel by road from Malindi and Mombasa and the destruction of the road by the heavy rains means that our hotels will be adversely affected until the section of the road is fixed to enable vehicles to pass through," he said.
He appealed to the government to speed up repairs on the bridge at Kanagoni, which was damaged by floods caused by rains that have been pounding parts of Coast Province over the past week.
Threatened
The Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers has now called on other airlines to introduce flights to Lamu, saying the area's status as a tourist destination is threatened by lack of reliable means of transport.
The association's Coast branch chairman, Mr Titus Kangangi, has called on the government to urgently repair the road as its bad state was hurting the industry in Lamu -- a world heritage site.
Only one airline offers a daily regular flight to Lamu after Kenya Airways pulled out of the route two years ago, citing low business and a small runway at the airstrip in the town.
"As an association we have approached other airlines to start direct flights from Mombasa and Nairobi to Lamu because the demand is there," he said.
There are many passengers at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport keen to board the only flight, he added.
Cancellation
At the same time, hoteliers are unhappy with the publicity being given to El Nino rains, saying it was hurting the tourism industry at the Coast.
Voi Wildlife Lodge manager Permenus Riungu said they had experienced a significant decline in bookings since the media started reporting about floods and threats posed by El Nino in the region.
"At our hotel we have experienced cancellation of bookings that we can quantify to about 10 per cent for this month after the clients feared the effects of the dreaded rains," he said.
Although the media has played a key role in reviving tourism following last year's poll chaos, giving more publicity to El Niño rains is putting the gains in jeopardy again, he added.
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