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"id": 61778,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/61778/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Balala",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Tourism",
"speaker": {
"id": 9,
"legal_name": "Najib Mohamed Balala",
"slug": "najib-balala"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that The Tourism Bill be now read a Second Time. I will start by thanking the House for the support it has given to the tourism sector over the years and enabling the Bill in its objective to revamp the sector to reach this stage. Before I proceed, I would like to assure hon. Shebesh that we are cognizant of the role of women. On 2nd March, I will be launching the Kenya Women Tourism Association. We are encouraging women to participate in tourism. We have no shortcut but to respect the provisions of the Constitution which gives women an equal role in our socio-economic development. Hon. Members may be aware that tourism remains a key sector of the economy and the third largest foreign exchange earner after tea and horticulture. Tourism being a highly labour intensive in nature contributes 9 per cent of the formal workforce. Moreover, the sector has high multiplier effect and its growth stimulates further socio- economical development in other sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, transport, banking and insurance, among others. In the recent years, tourism has done very well. We have now clocked 1.2 million arrivals of tourists. These are tourists who are not counted across the border points. We are using these figures as an estimate. The figure excludes our border points, where we do not as yet have the mechanism to count them. However, our estimation at these points is that we have an additional one million tourists. The remarkable growth contributed highly to the economy. The sector is faced by a number of challenges which need to be addressed, so that it can attain its full potential. Over the years, the tourism sector has become an extremely competitive business. It is no longer a simple business, thus necessitating the paradigm shift in the investment and management of the sector. The focus shifts from the traditional products to sustainable tourism products. It is unfortunate that despite Kenya being a pioneer tourism destination, especially with regard to safari tourism, we have been overtaken by other destinations in the region. This is mainly rooted in the fact that we have not updated our policy and legal framework. The first statement of the Kenya National Tourism Policy was set out in Sessional Paper No.8 of 1969. That was when I was about to be born. This is what has mainly been guiding the development of the tourism sector up to now. The policy focused on post-independence tourism sector which was then at the early stages of development. It is now outdated and does not address the current challenges facing the tourism sector and the changing global consumer trends. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the industry is facing big challenges, one of them being the narrow product range that we have. We have concentrated only on safari and the beaches. There is potential of having much more. We have culture, adventure, scenery, water sports, cultural activities, and so on. We have 59 national parks and reserves, but the only ones we have developed are seven. So, for the sake of environmental degradation on these national parks and conservation areas, we need to open many of them. I am glad that we are working on that trend now. The seven national parks are visited by 80 per cent of the tourists who come to this country. There is great potential in targeting the under-visited parks and reserves. We need to diversify our tourism products to avoid over-independence on beaches and wildlife. Some of the products that we intend to develop include conference tourism - This is doing very well. Today, we have the UNEP Conference on Environment. I can assure you that today you cannot get a single room available in Nairobi. That is how we have been very busy. The returns per room are as high as US$300 a night and people are making money. We also realize that there is room for expansion in Nairobi and all over the country. The issue is how we should deliver quality services. To remain competitive in the international market, it is imperative that we improve the quality of our facilities and services. It has been quite challenging to regulate the sector and ensure that we have quality services that benefit the needs of both the international market and the domestic market. We do not want to segregate tourists by saying, âa local touristâ or âa foreign tourist.â We want to treat tourists the same and not on the basis of colour or nationality. What matters is the currency that they give us because it is revenue for the country. We need to regulate, classify, and standardize our tourism facilities in line with the changing consumer trends and expectations. There is no shortcut in that because classification of hotels and facilities is paramount in order to have an edge over competitors in the market. Therefore, it is important for us to get this new legal framework so that we can improve on quality and service. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in 2007 when we were doing these good numbers, we were having a shortfall of bed capacity. Now, I have seen an expansion in Nairobi. In fact, more refurbishments are being undertaken and new investments are coming into the country. It is unfortunate that only 18 per cent of our bed capacity is in the level of IV to V Star categories while the international standard is 40 per cent. We have not done enough to give incentives to the new foreign investments and the existing investors who have so far sustained the sector. We need to support them so that we can achieve the Vision 2030 where the target is two million visitors. We want to have a quality service as well as the capacity. An enabling environment is very important. Road infrastructure is key. One of the challenges is that our infrastructure is not right yet, but I believe we are working on that. The infrastructure development in Nairobi is very good, but we want the same in Maasai Mara, Western Kenya, South Coast, Taveta, and the North Rift. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, another key enabling facility is reliable and affordable energy. We are working towards that currently, that is, telecommunications, water supply and waste management systems. This will enable us have a sustainable tourism sector. What kills part of our tourism sector is the fact that when people come here, we are normally not prepared to attract them. It is high time we overhauled and remodeled all our big cities so that they become attractive to tourism and foreign investment in our country. The issue of security and safety cannot be overemphasized because it is the basis for a tourism destination. It is important for us to strengthen the police force. Perhaps, we need to have a unit that will be responsible directly to the issue of tourism. We have proposed in this Bill the establishment of the Tourism Protection Service which will be similar to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). With such a service in place, it will remove the issue of over exaggerated negative travel advisories. These are made by people who are not friendly to Kenya and they panic whenever a small thing happens. Every day in this country, not a single tourist has been attacked even if there was a major crisis in our country. So, the issue is to stabilize security because the image is right. We cannot run away from the issue of climate change. We all know its impact. There is no need to create an industry that will have a major negative impact to the environment. If there is one sector that is proactive in environmental issues, then it is the eco-tourism products that we have developed in this country. We are an expert in that. For us to have a sustainable sector, we need to do a lot of research on trends, markets and our competitors. We also need to focus on the future. So, we need to establish a strong research institution. The Government needs to assist the private sector for further development of the tourism sector. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, marketing of our country is very important. We have a beautiful product and we assume that everybody knows it and they will come for it. Even if you have a beautiful product, but nobody knows about it, they will not come for it. We, therefore, need to invest in marketing the country. We need to tell the world who we are and what we have. It is like we want tourism to produce for the country, but we do not want to finance it. You milk the cow, but you do not want to feed it! That is one of the challenges that we have. If you want tourism to be strong so that it creates employment and generate revenue for this country, you must invest in marketing of the county. I want to address the issues in the existing policy and the legal framework so that hon. Members can appreciate the passage of this Bill. The existing legal framework for the tourism sector is fragmented into several Acts of Parliament and Kenya Gazettes. We have the Hotel Industry and Authority Act; The Tourism Industry Licensing Act and the Kenya Tourism Development Corporation Act. Under the Kenya Gazette Notices, we have the Kenya Utalii College; the Kenya Tourism Board and the KICC. This fragmentation deprives us the capacity to regulate and develop the sector as well as to address challenges in a well co-ordinated and harmonized manner. Therefore, there is need to address these inadequacies in order to make our tourism sustainable."
}