Nairobi — Kenya has recorded a 74.5 per cent jump in tourists visiting the country from January to November compared to the same period last year, the latest industry data shows.

According to a performance update by the Kenya Tourism Board(KTB), the total number of arrivals in Kenya during the January - November 2022 period was 1,321,887 from 870,465 arrivals in the same period in 2021.

The performance means the destination has achieved 70.2 per cent recovery of the performance for the year 2019 which stood at 1.97 million arrivals.

Leisure was the most popular reason for coming to Kenya during the period, with 39.6 per cent of arrivals being for holiday purposes.

Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) arrivals contributed 26 per cent of the total, with 344, 256 passengers arriving.

Business and MICE arrivals accounted for 26.1 per cent of the total, with 345,123 passengers arriving.

On-transit passengers also made up a significant portion of arrivals during this period, with 67,087 passengers arriving.

The top five markets for arrivals in Kenya during this period were the United States; 190,187 (14.4 per cent), Uganda; 132,942 (10.1 per cent), the United Kingdom; 117,691 (8.9 per cent), Tanzania; 110,603 (8.4 per cent) and India; 74,020 (5.6 per cent).

The tourism sector was among the worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic with most routes closing down and this saw many hotels shut down and millions of jobs lost, it has been on a recovery trajectory albeit slowly.

The Ministry of Tourism expects full recovery to 2019 levels by 2024.