Qatar Airway’s maiden direct flight to Mombasa landed on Sunday with 100 international holiday-makers on board.
The new four-times-weekly service will be Qatar Airways’ second Kenyan destination, in addition to existing flights to Nairobi.
The airline’s flights between Doha and Mombasa (MBA) will be operated with an Airbus A320 with 12 Business Class seats and 120 Economy Class seats, from December 11 with a flight time of just over six hours.
Mombasa Trade, Tourism and Investment executive Fawz Rashid said “We should all work closely together to expand complementary transport links and connectivity. This will make destination Mombasa and our region more attractive as both a tourist and investment destination.”
Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar al-Baker said.
“We are sure our new direct daily service to Mombasa will prove very popular with tourists interested in exploring Kenya’s beautiful tropical beaches and coastline, as well as immersing themselves in the city’s fascinating diverse cultural mix,” he noted.
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Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) Chief Executive Officer, Betty Radier said arrivals through Moi International Airport Mombasa have improved with 84,286 visitors up from 57,588 arrivals in the same period last year, a 46% growth.
The US – the top performing market – posted a 6% increase in arrivals for the last nine months compared with the same period last year with 95,234 visitors up from 89,866 recorded last year.
UK, the second top performing, also increased arrivals by 4.5% in the last nine months with 82,509 visitors up from 78,930 for Jan-September period last year.
“Germany recorded a 17.3% growth with 79,972 visitors while France, within the same review period, posted an increase of visitors to 20,248 up from 16,403 same period last year, indicating a 23.4% growth,” Radier revealed.
Holiday travelers are the main drivers of Kenya’s hospitality sector, accounting for 70.5% of international arrivals over the last 5-years, attracted mostly by features such as wildlife, coastal beaches, and natural sceneries. Between 2015 and 2016, holiday travelers increased by 14.0% to 0.9 mn, from 0.8 mn persons in 2015, as shown below, thus creating demand for accommodation and other hospitality services.
Despite the 3.7% drop noted in 2017, mainly due to traveler wariness over the political tension in the country, holiday travelers remained to be most at 64.0% out of the total international arrivals.
Source- Cytonn Investments.
