In March last year, as the world was still grappling with the new Covid-19 pandemic, Mombasa received a delegation of tour operators from Ukraine.
They had come to Kenya, through a sister cities programme.
Thedelegation from Odessa, Ukraine, was on a familiarisation tour of Mombasa city as a potential tourist destination for Ukrainian adventurers.
The Mombasa county government and the Ukraine Embassy in Kenya organised a meeting for tourism operators and travel agents for Kenya and Ukraine in Mombasa.
The meeting was to create a relationship between the two tourism cities, Mombasa and Odessa.
It offered a unique experience for the visitors and it created a memorable visit that helped sell Mombasa city as a holiday destination.
On Saturday, the initial meetings paid off as Mombasa received the inaugural chartered flight with 189 tourists from Ukraine.
The tourists, who comprised both leisure and business travellers, will create a remarkable economic impact on Mombasa during their 10-day stay.
The Boeing 737 operated by the Bees Airline touched down at the Moi International Airport on Saturday morning.
This was the first among ten rotations expected in the country from Kiev, Ukraine.
Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala and the Ukrainian ambassador to Kenya Andriy Prevednyk were at the airport to receive the plane.
"This is exciting news to the sector during this difficult time of the pandemic. We appreciate that the eastern Europe market is warming up to Kenya. We expect to receive more visitors from Ukraine and the entire eastern Europe bloc,” Balala said.
He said the national government is working towards reviewing the charter modalities to ensure that Kenya is able to attract more charter planes.
Mombasa Tourism chief officer Aisha Abdi said the partnership between the county government and Ukraine has finally yielded fruit.
“This journey began a year ago when we had the opportunity to host tour operators, marketers and media from Ukraine on a familiarisation tour to sample tourism products at the Kenyan coast. We expect this partnership to revamp the sector that has been hit hard by the pandemic," she said.
She said the collaboration seeks to explore opportunities not only in tourism but also in other sectors including health, education, culture and sports.
Balala disclosed that he is working closely with his counterpart from the Ministry of Health Mutahi Kagwe to vaccinate at least 5,000 operators in the tourism industry.
“We have managed to secure 5,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The vaccination exercise will begin next week on Wednesday in Nairobi with priority given to bars, restaurants, accommodation facilities and tour drivers," Balala said.
Edited by Henry Makori
