The Government is targeting to increase the number of international tourists visiting the country from 2.4 million recorded in 2024 to 7.5 million by 2030.
President William Ruto has already committed to ensuring Kenya attains at least 5 million international tourists’ arrivals by 2027.
Speaking in Kakamega, a principal Tourism Officer from the State Department for Tourism Mr Ishmael Chelang’a, said the ease of travel enabled through the Kenya Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) and the Kenya Open Sky Policy are some of the interventions put in place to attract international tourists to the country.
Chelang’a was speaking during a public participation forum for the Kenya National Tourism Strategy (NTS) 2025-2030, which is aimed at making Kenya a competitive and sustainable tourism destination country worldwide.
In the 2024 statistics, Kenya is ranked sixth in Africa in tourism arrivals. Morocco leads with 17.4million visitors, followed by Egypt with 15.7million visitors.
According to Chelang’a the increase in the number of tourists will increase revenue realized from international tourists from Sh 452billion in 2024 to Sh 1.2trillion by 2030.
“In terms of employment, tourism directly and indirectly creates over 1.5million jobs, we want those jobs to increase to 2.5million by 2030,” he added.
He also explained that the government is targeting to increase the number of average stays of visitors from the current eight days to 12 days by 2030.
“When a visitor stays in a destination longer, they spend more and it contributes to the economy of that destination, and it is us Kenyans who make them want to extend their stay,” he added.
On domestic trips, he said, the government is targeting to have it grow from the current 5.17 million bed nights to at least 10 million bed nights by 2030.
Through the strategy, the government is also keen to tap from the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE), a key tourism earner.
“We are calling upon counties to also ensure they have a conference centre, because people travel for businesses, conferences, meetings and when we have facilities it helps to increase numbers of tourists,” he added.
In the hospitality industry, he said that the government is keen on increasing the number of internationally classified beds from 26,786 in 2018 to 125,000 by 2030.
“Any infrastructure that is being done has a way of making sure that accessibility is enhanced and supports tourism. We currently have the Open Sky policy on Travel where you can now fly from Mombasa to Dubai direct. These are some of the initiatives that the government is doing to ensure that we make our tourism destinations accessible,” he explained.
He also urged county governments to leverage on the Kenyan urban tourism product to attract those visitors who are normally interested to have an experience of the urban setup.
In 2024 the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) unveiled nine tourism circuits to transform travel experiences.
In those circuits, the government is seeking to establish a major flagship project that will help in driving visitors to that region. For instance, he noted that, in the northern circuit, the government is set to construct a museum in Lodwar town that will preserve the culture of the Turkana community.
To ensure the safety of tourists, he said the government will strengthen the Tourism Police Unit, list licensed tour operators on the National Tourism Service Portal and establish a Tourism Crisis Management Unit where tourists can report and be helped.
“We are developing what we call an innovation hub for purposes of getting all data, so that we get credible information on the numbers of tourists and issues that need to be addressed from every tourism destination,” he added.
By Moses Wekesa and Selphine Katumanga
