I am a Kenyan living away from home and so have been glued to the news throughout the post election crisis. It’s been such an awful time for us as a nation and the effect on Kenya has been devastating.
The tourism industry has been hit hard, as you can imagine, and if I hadn’t been in contact with family that live in the country it wouldn’t be my first choice of holiday destination either. But the perception of Kenya as a war zone is inaccurate.
I know that The Kenya Tourism Federation (made up mostly of volunteers) has been painstakingly fighting these images and have been rolling out an aggressive public relations campaign but it seems to me the message is not getting across. More needs to be done on educating the world on the reality of the situation, perhaps stepping up media relations and contesting the sensationalist view of the media, but is it all futile? After all gore and pandemonium sells newspapers!
David Beirman gives a good insight on crisis management in the tourism industry and what Kenya should be doing to limit the damage done to the industry. This article inspired me and gave me hope for Kenya’s future.
