Kenya Travel Predictions for 2012 by ATG Editor

Jan. 16, 2012 - PRLog -- Africa-travel-guide.com, a leading travel website for Africa, has predicted a  tough year for the Kenyan tourism sector.

According to Peter Abrahams, editor of Africa-travel-guide.com, the gloomy outlook will mainly be brought about by the ongoing military action on the Somalia's Al Shabaab terrorist organisation, election jitters and the euro zone debt crisis.

"The escalating military action on the Al Shabaab has seen the terrorist organisation threatening to bomb Nairobi and other major towns in Kenya. The threats are being taken seriously and tourists are likely to stay away from Kenya for at least the next six months," says Abrahams.

In mid-October 2011 Kenyan defence forces crossed the border into Somalia to hunt down on the Al-Shabaab terrorist organisation, following kidnapping and murder of two tourists by suspected Al Shabaab members in Kiwayu Safari Village and Manda Island, near the Somalia border.

Western governments have since updated their travel advice, with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office advising ‘against all but essential travel to within 60km of the Somali border and to coastal areas within 150km of the Kenya-Somalia border. This includes the Lamu area’.

"I think the security situation will improve by the second half of 2012, but then political temperatures will be heightening towards December, just before the presidential elections. This is likely to scare away tourists," says Abrahams.

The euro zone debt crisis, says Abraham, is also likely to impact negatively on the Kenyan tourism sector as most of Kenya's tourists come from Europe.

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