The tourism industry on Wednesday received a major boost following the announcement by a European charter company to commence operations in Kenya during the summer period.
The deal was arrived at after consultations between Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala and representatives of TUI which is one of the world’s largest tour operating company and Kenya’s leading international tour operator.
Tui Poland charter will for the first time be flying tourists to the Kenyan coast during the European summer season from July to October 2016, with a capacity of 180 passengers.
It will be operating to Mombasa weekly with a possibility of continuing through the winter period to April 2017.
TUI Europe and TUI UK also announced start of operations in the months of November and December.
The TUI representatives led by Harry Kingman, Tim Ramberg and Mateusz Maszkiewics are already in Mombasa on a 5 days visit to inspect tourism products and engage stakeholders in business during this period.
While welcoming this announcement, Balala said the charters will benefit from the recently announced charter incentive programme that includes waiver of landing fee and a 30-US dollar subsidy to every passenger on the charters terminating in Mombasa and Malindi.
“This is a step in the right direction and a big boost to the tourism industry, we welcome these charters and many others willing to come. The action by TUI is a strong indicator that we are on the right path to tourism recovery,” said Balala.