The Kenyan government has engaged a Spanish firm to evaluate tourism products and advise on what should be done to help revive tourism at the coast.

Although international tourist arrivals to Kenya grew by 17.2% to almost 600 000 in the first eight months of this year, tourism is yet to recover at the coast.

Despite the high tourist season, hotel occupancy in Mombasa is only averaging at 50%, Diani in the south coast at 40% while Malindi and Watamu resort towns at 20%.

During a recent tourism stakeholders’ meeting in Malindi, Kenya’s Tourism Minister, Najib Balala, expressed concerns over the tourism slump in the region. “Tourism at the Kenya coast has not been performing well for years now. As a government we are concerned about the situation, which has caused job and business losses,” he said.

“We have decided to bring on board tourism experts from Spain to help identify the challenges affecting the industry.” Innovative Tourism Advisors, based in Barcelona, had over three decades of experience in working out strategies to revive tourism, said Balala.

“The firm has been involved in over1100 projects in more than 70 countries where it has designed formulas for revamping the industry.”

The firm has been given five months to assess what ails the industry in the coast and come up with the way forward.

To help revive the industry, Balala said the government had allocated Ksh1.5 billion (€13.7m) to the Kenya Tourism Board in support of marketing campaigns in overseas markets.