Tour operators are struggling to secure bed nights at lodges in Kenya’s famous Maasai Mara, as last-minute interest for the peak of the Great Migration surges.
According to the Ministry of Wildlife and Tourism, lodges in the Mara are fully booked for the next two months, posing challenges for operators looking to secure space for clients eager to witness the migration during Kenya’s peak season.
“Demand for travel to Kenya to see the Great Migration is extremely high at the moment, with lots of last-minute interest. However, securing rooms and getting our travellers to see this wildlife spectacle is proving extremely challenging this year,” said André van Kets, Co-Founder and Director of Discover Africa Safaris.
“This is mostly due to difficulty in securing bed nights, especially at the top-end lodges who have had many pandemic-era bookings from 2020 and 2021 bumped into 2022 and beyond. We are encouraging guests to book ahead to 2023 or even 2024 to secure their spots.”
The Ministry of Wildlife and Tourism is predicting that total international tourist arrivals will surpass the one million target this year, bringing in expected earnings of US$1.4 billion. This compares with 870 000 arrivals in 2021 and earnings of US$1.2 billion.
“The desire to travel to Africa feels like it is at an all-time high. The demand is certainly fully recovered, but air and bed capacity is lagging behind. We expect it will take another 12-18 months before supply and demand reach pre-pandemic equilibrium,” said Van Kets.
The latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that 225 321 visitors arrived through Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Mombasa’s Moi International Airport in the first quarter of 2022, almost double the 121 739 arrivals for the same period last year.
The recovery comes after the launch of the Kenyan government’s tourism recovery plan in May, which focuses on four main pillars: branding, marketing, experiences and enablers.
According to Najib Balala, Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Wildlife and Tourism, the strategy calls for “repositioning of Kenya's brand, developing new and existing markets, developing new tourism products and experiences as well as developing enablers to further strengthen the industry”.
