Feb 12, 2008, 18:26 GMT
Nairobi - The number of tourists arriving to Kenya last month was 90 per cent less than anticipated, reports said, following weeks of violence and unrest that have marred the image of the nation known for its fabled game parks and pristine coastline.
Kenya relies heavily on its once bustling tourism industry for foreign exchange, but the aftermath of the disputed December 27 elections forced many visitors to cancel their trips in what is ordinarily a peak season in Kenya.
'Kenya is not the first country to be affected by such a crisis and I urge stakeholders to focus ahead,' Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, was quoted as saying in the independent Daily Nation.
The Standard, Kenya's oldest newspaper, reported only 8,000 tourists arrived to the country instead of the 100,000 expected.
Thousands of people have lost their jobs over the decline in tourists, with usually packed hotels at the Indian Ocean coast and in game parks nearly empty.
Some 2 million tourists travelled to Kenya in 2007, an increase of 12.5 per cent from the year before, according to Kenya's tourism ministry. The industry is Kenya's third-largest foreign exchange earner.
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