Published on : Wednesday, April 28, 2021
The vaccination drive comes ahead of the annual wildebeest migration all over the Maasai Mara National Reserve. In general, this migration attracts thousands of foreign visitors. But, in 2020, it drew a far smaller number of just the local tourists.
Between January and October 2020, the tourism sector of Kenya lost close to $1 billion in revenue when the number of international visitors dropped by two thirds due to the pandemic, official data said. As the vaccination campaigns are advancing quickly in several Western countries whose citizens visit Kenya to enjoy the safaris, guides were quite hopeful that after the vaccination drive — they could hope for the businesses to pick up.
To quote Willis Sande, chairman of the Safari Guides Professionals Association of Kenya, “This is also an indication to the world and any prospective visitors that Kenya is one of the safest places to come and visit now.” Dressed in the traditional dress of his Maasai ethnic group, Daniel Ole Kissipan, a guide, stated that, “It is very important especially for our clients both domestic and international.”
Also, from Amboseli National Park, other guides have travelled to the capital city to take the vaccine shot, a place beloved by tourists for its elephants and view of towering Mount Kilimanjaro across the border in Tanzania.
“We move around different corners of Kenya so as we visit all these areas we need to get the vaccine,” guide Dickson Miroro said.
Kenya started its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on March 5th. The government has explained that it hoped the campaign would kick-start the beginning of the end of this disastrous period. The health ministry has overseen more than 800,000 doses of over 1 million it received via the global vaccine-sharing facility COVAX. At the first go, Kenya started vaccinations to inoculate health staff and other essential workers, however, slow uptake led the government to offer it extensively, as per the country’s main doctor’s union.
Tags: kenya
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