The Assitant Minister of Tourism for Kenya, Honourable Cecily Mbarire stressed in an interview with ATN that Kenya was a “safe and welcoming” country for UAE nationals to visit.
She said plans were still on track for a major increase in visitor numbers to Kenya from the UAE, despite an unfortunate diplomatic blunder last month which saw four UAE nationals on holiday in Kenya deported as terror suspects.
The four UAE nationals - reported in the media as being members of the royal family - were on holiday in Mombassa when immigration officials interrogated them for hours and expelled them from the country.
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“First of all it was a complete misinterpretation of the facts - it was not any member of the royal family and nobody close to them - but they were UAE nationals,” said Mbarire. “It was a highly regretable incident that we as a country felt should not have happened.”
UAE authorities responded to the incident by banning all visas for Kenyan nationals to the UAE unless they had a degree. Speaking at ATM, Mbarire said the situation had been resolved.
“We got into discussions with the authorities here in the UAE and I’m happy to report that we got feedback that they have now changed their decision and will continue to give visas as per the old regulations. We have managed to sort out the issue and we are very very happy about that. It was really hurting everybody, including the airlines.
She added: "Our diplomatic relations with UAE are a strong as ever, its just one of those things that happens between friends but we have been able to rise above that and our friendship still continues."
Mbarire added that Kenya was now focused on increasing its visitor numbers from the UAE.
In 2009 Kenya received 12,000 tourists from the Middle East, and has a target to increase this to 25,000 in 2010. In December Kenya Tourism Board opened an office in the UAE and launched a training programme to train travel agents about the destination in partnership with Emirates Airlines.
“We opened the tourism office in December last year and in that short time we have done so much. We have trained over 500 travel agents in the region."
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