is preparing to welcome tourists back next month and ease travel restrictions throughout the country with the return of international flights in August.
In a statement issued last week, Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, announced that international flights would resume from August 1 and domestic flights from July 15, as the country aims to recover vital income from its tourism industry. “We have reached a reasonable level of preparedness across the country to allow us to reopen,” he stated, emphasizing that the easing of travel restrictions depends on the decline of transmission rates. “Any trends that signal a worsening of the pandemic, we will have no choice but to return to the lockdown.”
After four months of lockdown, it is hoped that the cautious return to tourism will provide a lifeline for the country’s wildlife conservation programs, which have struggled to sustain themselves without income generated by tourism. Normally, at this time of year, thousands of tourists flock to Kenya to witness the annual Great Migration, where more than a million wildebeest and zebra cross the Mara River from the Serengeti into the . Unfortunately, tourism bookings tied to key events like this have been significantly reduced. Speaking to the Guardian, Dickson Kaelo, chief executive officer at Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association, explained that the lack of tourism revenue could lead to an increase in poaching.
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“Members of these communities may lose faith in wildlife conservation if there is no income forthcoming,” he expressed. “In addition, people living around these wildlife havens, who historically relied on tourism, may resort to other income-generating ventures such as farming, consequently fueling human-wildlife conflicts as animals invade and destroy their crops.”
As Kenya prepares to open its borders once more, the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife has announced it will offer reduced entry fees to all Kenya Wildlife Service game parks and reserves for a year starting July 1. The new rates can be viewed here.
