Kenya Tourist Arrivals Up 16% in First Four Months of 2011

(Updates with rise in tourism revenue in fourth paragraph.)

June 28 (Bloomberg) -- Tourist arrivals in Kenya, East Africa’s biggest economy, grew 16 percent in the first four months of the year as the country stepped up its marketing campaign, Tourism Minister Najib Balala said.

The number of visitors who landed at Kenya’s main airports in Nairobi and Mombasa between January and April rose to 390,148 from 336,179 a year earlier, Balala told reporters today in the capital.

Tourist arrivals hit a record 1.1 million last year, while revenue from the industry jumped 18 percent to 73.7 billion shillings ($820 million). Tourism, Kenya’s second-largest foreign-exchange earner after tea, accounts for 11 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

In the four months through April, income from tourism grew 18 percent, Balala said, without providing the exact amount. The government is targeting a 20 percent increase in tourist arrivals this year, he said on June 15.

--Editors: Karl Maier, Ben Holland

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at smcgregor5@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.