Travel now possible to Kenya
Travel Insurance News - 04/02/2008
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The United Kingdom recently revised its travel advisory to Kenya, giving the country which has been rocked by political violence in the last three weeks a new lifeline for tourism. With the revised advisory, travellers will be able to procure travel insurance for visits to the African nation.
The new travel advice from the British Government now advises against travel to specific, troubled areas of the country rather than the blanket advice against non-essential travel. The Western and Nyanza provinces of Kenya including Narok, Kibera, Mathare, Eastleigh and Mombasa are still considered dangerous.
Jake Grieves-Cook, a spokesperson from the Kenya Tourism Federation (KTF) said: "This means that Britons coming to Kenya can now get travel insurance.”
The KTF have also warned tourists against travel to some areas of the country.
Despite the fact that areas like the capital of Nairobi have been deemed safe, the tourist industry continues to suffer. Hotels in the Central Business District of Nairobi are predicting low occupancy rates in the foreseeable future. Because of the political situation and the travel advisory, hotel occupancy rates have dropped to around 30 per cent in the best areas of the capital.
Violence erupted in Kenya shortly after President Kibaki was reported to be the winner of the election on December 27th. The problems which followed led many tourists to cancel holidays and hotel reservations.
Already, hotels have been forced to send staff home and experts in the industry fear that as many as 20,000 could be without jobs if the situation continues. Another 550,000 could also be affected by cancellations of both hotels and charter flights.
"We hope that this move by the British will prompt other governments into revising their travel advisories accordingly," Mr Grieves-Cook said.
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