- In June Tourism CS Najib Balala announced that the country had lost 50 per cent of total annual tourism earnings.
- This translates to Sh81.8 billion based on last last year's revenues when the sector generated Sh163.6 billion.
The Covid-19 pandemic took the world by storm and hit the tourism industry hardest.
The sector took a nosedive after international travel was stopped as one way of curbing the spread of the virus.
In April, the Kenya Wildlife Service announced a tiger had been infected with the coronavirus.
It announced precautionary measures for captive wildlife facilities.
This was after the United State Department of Agriculture National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed SARS-Cov-2 in one of the tigers at a zoo in New York on April 5.
The samples from the tiger were taken and tested after several lions and tigers at the zoo showed symptoms of respiratory illness.
It is believed that the big cats became sick after getting exposed to a zoo employee who was actively shedding the virus.
On March 30, pre-print of a scientific publication titled 'Susceptibility of ferrets, cats, dogs and different domestic animals to SARS-coronavirus-2' made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 international licence, reported an investigation of susceptibility of ferrets and animals in close contact with humans to SARS-Cov-2.
Though it had not undergone peer review, the authors found that SARS-Cov-2 replicates poorly in dogs, pigs, chickens and ducks.
It, however, replicates in ferrets and cats.
They also found out that the virus is transmitted in cats through respiratory droplets.
KWS said although the study is experimental, whereby the virus was inoculated into the animals, there is the possibility of the same occurring in a natural setting, especially in their captive facilities where human-animal interaction is high.
KWS director general John Waweru called for precaution.
"To ensure that susceptible animals in captive facilities are not exposed to this virus, it is important to identify specific staff who will work with various families of animals species in the captive facilities. For example, specific staff be deployed to work with felids, canids, herbivores and non-human primates," he said.
In June Tourism CS Najib Balala announced that the country had lost 50 per cent of total annual tourism earnings.
This translates to Sh81.8 billion based on last last year's revenues when the sector generated Sh163.6 billion.
The CS said the pandemic, which was declared a global pandemic in March, had hit the sector hard, bringing international travel and tourism to a halt.
"We began the first and second quarters of financial year 2019-20 with tremendous tourism growth. However, the performance was curtailed by the coronavirus," Balala said.
Data from the government, in collaboration with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, indicates travel and tourism is the most hit, with 3.1 million jobs affected.
This includes hotel employees, pubs and restaurants, tour operators, airlines, travel agents and their related suppliers and support services.
The impact of the pandemic also affected the operations and programmes in some of the protected areas.
The impact of the pandemic on revenue generation was so serious that nearly half of protected areas across Africa reported that they could only maintain basic operations for up to three months if the restrictions imposed by Covid-19 continued to be in forceStudy
These included operations such as protecting endangered species, conducting regular field patrols, managing human-wildlife conflicts, monitoring illegal wildlife trade, conducting anti-poaching operations and generating revenue from various sources.
A study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Commission on Protected Areas showed that most countries reported high impacts in activities related to monitoring illegal wildlife trade, gathering security intelligence and carrying out security investigations.
African Wildlife Foundation supported the survey.
“The impact of the pandemic on revenue generation was so serious that nearly half of protected areas across Africa reported that they could only maintain basic operations for up to three months if the restrictions imposed by Covid-19 continued to be in force,” part of the study released June said.
"This loss of income to already underfunded protected areas has huge implications on their ability to perform basic functions and fulfill mandatory obligations, including payment of salaries and protecting biodiversity and other resources."
It is estimated that there were 1.5 billion tourists in the world. Of these, Africa received 71.2 million and Kenya 2.05 million.
The report was commissioned by the National Tourism Crisis Committee under the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife in June.
“The airline sector of the tourism industry is adversely affected. There is a ban on international travel worldwide, including Kenya. The Covid-19 outbreak could cause 50 million job loses; which may translate to a global loss in tourism revenue of about USD30 to USD50 billion in 2020,” the report reads.
Kenya has recorded impressive growth in the tourism sector since 2015. Tourism arrivals grew by 3.9 per cent from 2.02 million tourists in 2018 to 2.05 million tourists in 2019 after a 37.33 per cent from 1.47 million in 2017.
Domestic tourism numbers grew from 3,645,144 in 2017 to 3,974,243 in 2018, recording a 9.03 per cent growth.
Wildlife conservancies have also not been spared, with most now relying on donations.
Landowners within the Maasai Mara, despite leasing their large tracts of land, have nothing to show for it.
However, Conservation International has come to their rescue, promising to provide a lifeline for them.
Conservation International announced that it will provide a loan programme to support conservancies imperilled by drop in tourism.
Maasai Mara is home to 25 per cent of Kenya’s wildlife and host the greatest annual migration of animals on Earth. The greater Mara ecosystem is one of the most important conservation areas in Africa.
The land is owned by the indigenous Maasai people, who lease it to conservancies for tourism operations, which in turn fund conservation efforts that drive wildlife tourism.
But this conservation model, one of the most promising and innovative in Africa, faces collapse as a result of the pandemic.
The loss of lease income due to the halt in tourism — and uncertainty as to when tourists may return —could force the Maasai landowners to sell or convert their land to farming, putting wildlife conservation at risk.
In 2019, Maasai landowners collected more than $7.5 million (Sh815.8 million) in lease payments; this year they are expecting less than half that sum.
Working with the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association, Conservation International has established the Maasai Mara Rescue Fund, a loan programme that will help cover lease payments owed by the conservancies to landowners.
The fund will provide a significant boost to the donations made by other landscape supporters.
“The fallout in tourism due to the pandemic means communities are struggling to survive. These lease payments will help ensure the lands that make up the greater Maasai Mara remain wild, and that the communities that count on income from tourism are supported during this global crisis,” said Michael O’Brien-Onyeka, senior vice president of the Africa Field Division at Conservation International.
Annually, the national parks and conservancies draw hundreds of thousands of guests who come to experience the magic of the Mara firsthand.
Daniel ole Sopia, CEO of the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association, said over the last two decades, local communities and tourism investors have worked to find a way that nature and people can thrive together.
“Our conservancies both secure critical wildlife populations and benefit local people. This is what successful conservation looks like,” he said.
Sopia said Covid-19 has put this model at risk.
“This innovative fund will help us withstand this shock, and better prepare for future ones. It will help us, our hard work, survive," he said.
As home to some of Africa’s most iconic animals – elephants, lions, leopards, buffalo and rhino – the Maasai Mara’s sweeping rangelands are one of the world’s last remaining places where all of these animals roam.
The Great Migration, which takes place from July to October, occurred this year with a fraction of the tourists who typically turn out to see it — resulting in significantly less income for the conservancies and ultimately less resources for conservation.
Through the loan programme, conservancies across the Maasai Mara will secure short-to-medium term funding to offset the revenue loss from Covid-19 and support long-term sustainability.
The loans will be repaid out of future tourism returns and fees that the conservancies collect from tourism operators.
As a condition of the loan, the conservancies will be required to implement governance, operational and financial strengthening activities to ensure long-term sustainability of the conservancy model.
The ecosystem spans 4,500 square kilometers.
The Maasai community controls more than one-third of the ecosystem through community conservancies with the conservancies supporting the livelihoods of an estimated 100,000 people.