The Kenya Tourism Sector To Lose 72 Billion Due To COVID-19

A new Government study has shown that tourism will lose 72,000,000,000 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic this year.

The study indicated that the losses are mainly due to the closure of international and local borders to contain the spread of the deadly virus which saw the closure of all tourist sites due to a lack of tourists entering the country.

According to National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani, hotels alone are expected to suffer 56,000,000,000 losses. He added that Catering and other associated services will lose 16.2,000,000,000 he added.

“A study commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife on the impact of Covid-19 estimates that the pandemic is likely to cost the industry a loss of $511 million in hotel revenue, $125 million in associated revenue, and Sh2.5 billion for catering levy,” the Treasury said.

Another report by the Tourism Ministry in June said an escalation in the crisis could see passenger volumes drop 1.6,000,000 translating to 35,000,000,000 in losses.

The new Government study also showed that the country recorded 3,101 tourist arrivals in April, compared to 146,258 visitors in the same month last year.

“Total arrivals as of April 2020 stood at 392,691, almost half the 619,698 recorded in the same period last year,” the Treasury report says.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, some 81.3 percent of tourist establishments have reduced their employees while 85.5 percent have effected pay cuts.

In early November, tourism analysts said the international tourism Industry could lose more than $1Trillion and can reduce Global GDP by Up to 2.8 percent as international tourist numbers in 2020 could decline by 58 percent to 78 percent.

It is estimated that visitor spending could plummet from the 2019 figure of $1.5 trillion to between $310 billion and $570 billion in 2020. It would translate to a loss of $910 billion to $1.2 trillion in tourism exports.

Tourism is one of the sectors that have been hit hardest by the pandemic, according to the World Tourism Organization, the top countries with the biggest tourism revenue loss due to COVID-19 (Jan-April 2020) were the US at $30.71 million and Spain at $9.74 million.

In 2019 alone, there were 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals and 8.8 billion domestic arrivals, during the first four months of 2020, the US saw the highest loss in tourism revenue, losing $30.71 billion.

Additionally, between January and August 2020, the number of international tourist arrivals dropped by 70 percent according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).