Despite a myriad of external and internal occurrences that have affected the tourism industry in Kenya, the industry has continued to record remarkable progress with this year’s statistics indicating that tourist arrivals from 16 of the country’s 31 key source markets have increased.

There has been a growth in the main markets with the U.S recording a 16.5% increase and U.K recording 6 % increase. For Quarter 1 the sector recorded 312,258 arrivals compared to last year’s 313,691, leading to a 0.5% decline. The United Kingdom remains one of Kenya’s key source markets accounting for more than 45,000 of the visitors. Italy on the other hand saw arrivals at 33,000 while the U.S recorded 27,887. India had upstaged France to take the 5th place in the roll of Kenya’s top 5 Key Source markets.

In the regional and emerging markets, South Africa accounted for 9,403 visitors followed by Uganda with 8,833 tourists and Tanzania 8,079. It was noted that Visitors from China, Russia and Brazil declined in the first quarter of the year.