The vaccination of hospitality workers on the Coast will help reinvigorate the struggling industry, an association has said.
The Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers said Mombasa, Taita Taveta and Kilifi counties have done well in ensuring industry players get the Covid-19 jab.
However, in Kwale, a globally renowned beach tourism destination and home to several five-star hotels, the majority of the hotel staff have yet to be vaccinated.
“We got reports that there was a very low uptake in Kwale county. We have tried to find out why hoteliers are not getting the vaccine, but the county is not responding to our queries,” Ikwaye said.
In Mombasa, about 2,600 individuals working in the tourism sector received their first jab of the AstraZeneca vaccine out of the target 3,000. Ikwaye attributed this to the good partnership between the county and tourism sector players.
In Kilifi, 1,500 jabs were administered to individuals working in the hospitality sector, while in Taita Taveta, a good number of hotel employees were also given the jab.
“Taita Taveta county was very proactive as it had already begun vaccinating all tourism stakeholders before the vaccination of tourism players was rolled out officially,” Ikwaye said.
He said that in Kwale, despite the intervention by Governor Salim Mvurya, the uptake was very low among residents and hotel staff. Ikwaye urged technocrats within the county to encourage the people to go for the jab and asked that more jabs be allocated to the hotel industry during the second phase of the vaccination.
Kwale is predominantly a tourism destination compared to Mombasa which focusses on vacation and conference tourism.
