- Fort Jesus and Old Town Mombasa remain two of the most underdeveloped tourist attractions in Mombasa.
- In Stone Town Zanzibar, there are not less than 21 places to stay in of differing costs while in Old Town Mombasa there is none.
One of the unique pleasures of Mombasa is that there are places of leisure that people visit for the same reason irrespective of social status, amount of personal wealth, state of one’s health, ethnic background, age, religious persuasion or gender.
One such place is Mama Ngina Waterfront. When one sits there within a short time one will see a speck on the horizon grow and grow, finally evolving into a massive ship of similar height to a six-storey building or more as it sails through the Likoni channel into the Port of Mombasa.
Not all ships that sail into the port bear cargo, some are cruise ships which bring tourists. Cruise tourism involves catering to the sightseeing, recreational and entertainment needs of passengers travelling on ships with multiple destinations and ports of call.
Cruise tourism products largely fall into three broad categories—contemporary, premium and luxury—with an estimated average daily cost of $200 (Sh26,010), $350 (Sh45,518) and $500 (Sh65,025) respectively.
At a port of call such as Mombasa, the cruise ship tourist spends an average of $190 (Sh24,710) per day, which is significantly more than the $107 (Sh13,915) the normal foreign tourist spends. Last year, according to Kenya Ports Authority records, there were about 12,000 such tourists, which is less than 10 per cent of the total 130,000 foreign visitors received.
To attract more cruise ship visitors we need to understand them and their requirements.
Statistics show that 93 per cent are from North America and Europe with an average age of 46 and 83 per cent married. Some 65 per cent are educated to college level, 72 per cent employed, while 21 per cent are retirees. Active adventure is the main excursion attraction of 62.5 per cent of these visitors.
The average duration of stay at a port of call is estimated at three days, which means that the excursions have to have minimal transfer time to the active site for the visitor to receive full value of money. Fort Jesus and Old Town Mombasa remain two of the most underdeveloped tourist attractions in Mombasa.
Fort Jesus, built between 1593 and 1596 to secure the safe passage of Portuguese ships to India, was fought for and lost nine times before the Omani Arabs took full control from the Portuguese in 1698.
Its rich history does not end with the imposing fort overlooking the entrance to the old port, but below the water where ancient shipwrecks lie.
Dr Bita, the head of underwater archaeology at the National Museums of Kenya, and Prof Castro, the only renowned scholar of Vasco Da Gama era shipwrecks worldwide, have made remarkable findings at Fort Jesus and along the Kenya coast giving Mombasa a solid foundation to build underwater diving as a tourism product.
The Santo Antonio de Tanna sunk in the 1697 siege of Mombasa and lies underwater at the foot of Fort Jesus, while one of Vasco Da Gama’s ships that hit the reef at Ngomeni and sunk has also been identified.
Old Town Mombasa has faced great difficulty keeping its authenticity with the changing socioeconomic needs of the resident community. Only recently the visit there by King Charles of England brought again into the limelight the existence of the oldest mosques in East and Central Africa founded in 1570 that has not only never once closed its doors to worshippers in all these centuries, but is one of the only two mosques in the world to have two mihrabs.
Despite the existence of such rich history and culture, there is a glaring difference between Old Town Mombasa and Stone Town Zanzibar in the development of the hospitality industry. In Stone Town Zanzibar, there are not less than 21 places to stay in of differing costs while in Old Town Mombasa there is none.
One such ready market for exploitation is Portugal, which unlike Spain is not within the top 30 origins of tourists to Kenya. Some 16,400 Spanish nationals visit Kenya annually despite the country having no significant historical ties with Kenya yet both countries have similar minimal wage rates.
With products tailor-made for cruise ship tourists and Kenya Port Authority maintaining its exemplary efficiency, the potential target of 140,000 cruise visitors annually could be attainable.