Nairobi - Kenya's ailing tourism industry plans to ride on Barack Obama's US election victory to attract more American visitors, an industry official said on Wednesday.
Fighting at the start of 2008 after a disputed presidential election in east Africa's largest economy led to a downturn in tourism, Kenya's second biggest hard currency earner in 2007.
But tourism authorities hope Obama's highly-publicised campaign, victory and his ties to Kenya will draw tourists to the country's sunny beaches and famed wildlife reserves.
"We'll be looking at our strategy for marketing so that we give greater attention to the US market to respond to the greater attention and interest being shown," said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairperson of the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB).
"It has very positive implications for tourism. Kenya now is in the spotlight internationally. We are bound to see an increased interest in Kenya," he told Reuters in an interview.
Obama was born to a white mother from Kansas and a Kenyan father, who hails from the western hamlet of Kogelo.
Within hours of Obama's win, workers from the country's electricity distributor were surveying the area near his paternal grandmother's house for a possible connection.
Kenyan police have tightened security at the humble homestead and yellow graders have been smoothing the dirt road to her home for several days.
Travel warnings
Grieves-Cook said the United States is Kenya's second biggest source of tourists, after Britain. A total of 25 000 Americans visited Kenya in the first nine months 2008, down from more than 100 000 in 2007, according to KTB.
He said the United States should soften a warning to its citizens about visiting Kenya in the light of continuing threats from terrorism and crime.
"For a long time, we have been the subject of a fairly strong advisory by the US state department. It's high time that the travel warning is reviewed because of the increased interest in Kenya," he said.
The state department has warned of potential terrorist attacks since an al Qaeda truck bomb killed at least 225 people at the US Embassy in the capital Nairobi 10 years ago.
A second attack in November 2002 killed 15 people at the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel resort near Mombasa on Kenya's coast, bringing the key tourism sector to its knees.
Grieves-Cook said he did not expect Kenya to be a terrorist target on account of Obama.
"There is a great deal of good will toward Kenya. The US policy is likely to change with the new president," he said.
Kenyan tourism recovered after the two attacks to record earnings of 65.4bn Kenya shillings last year, but the ethnic and political bloodshed in early 2008 has scared off many foreign holidaymakers.
Tourism earnings in the first nine months slumped to $435m compared with $620m in the same period last year. Analysts predict Kenya's economy will grow by about 4.5% this year, down from 7.0% in 2007.
"Tourism has been very poor in the last 10 months as a result of the fighting," he said. "We are now faced by the problem of the credit crunch."
- Reuters