The US has topped the number of new arrivals into the country since the resumption of international flights on August 1.
Arrivals from the US were 2,768 followed by the UK with 2, 469 followed by 506 from Uganda.
Tourism CS Najib Balala on Friday said that there have been 14,049 arrivals in total since the resumption of international flights on August 1.
He said that the major points of entry were the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), (13,249), Moi International Airport Mombasa (645), Wilson Airport (154), and Wajir Airport (1).
“The data released today is invaluable to the country as it helps us to keep track of international tourist numbers to determine whether tourism and travel is improving since the easing of travel restrictions and the resumption of international flights into the country,” he said.
Kenya suspended international travel following coronavirus pandemic in March and it was not until August 1 that international flights resumed while domestic flights started operations in mid-July.
According to the data released by CS Balala, out of the 14,049 total arrivals since August 1, 6368 came to visit family/friends, 3,685 for holiday, 2325 on business, 1129 in transit, 221 for education, 194 for medical, 72 for religious purposes, 47 for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition (MICE), and 8 for sports.
Balala asserted that they will track international tourist arrivals monthly to find out if tourism and travel are increasing now that some restrictions placed earlier have been eased.
“It will be done on a monthly basis going forward to gauge our progress in the tourism and travel industry,” Balala stated.
Kenya is keen on getting back the tourism sector to where it was in 2018 where the country got over 2,048,334 international tourists, an increase of 37 percent compared to 2017 where there were 1,474,671 international arrivals.
Kenya earned Ksh157 billion in 2018 from the tourism sector compared to the previous year where Ksh119 billion was raked in.
