As tourism in Kenya gets to its climax, the government is set to launch their first ever direct flight from Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to New York’s John F Kennedy Airport on 28th October, 2018 following Kenya’s approval for Category One status by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in April 2017, the stage is now set for Kenya Airways (KQ) to launch its inaugural direct flight to the US on October 28, there will be daily direct flights by KQ in between these two international airports.
Following an increase in tourist arrivals from the United States by 17 per cent from 97,883 in 2016 to 114,507 in 2017, the launch of the KQ direct flights is a very historic milestone for Kenya as a country and acceleration of arrivals are expected to boost the travel and tourism industry of Kenya given the reports by the United Nations World Tourism Organization that indicate the US as the world’s second largest tourism source market after China. As several of North Americans consider travelling to Africa as one of the world’s best vacation destinations, Kenya currently will take the lead since it has an opportunity to expand further into the US travel and tourism markets positively affecting the direct cargo transportation of Kenya’s Agricultural exports such as flowers, tea, coffee and textiles by air straight into the US markets.
Kenya’s exports to the US have been experiencing steady growth since 2013, which closed at Sh47.2 billion in 2017 from Sh29.9 billion in 2013 and with the direct KQ flight, Agricultural sector expects to break the record of food and cash crop exportation to the US.
Most of the tourists from North and South America usually connect to Kenya and Africa via the European continent, but takes them almost 24 hours to land in Kenya or Africa generally but with the direct flight, the flight time will drop from 24 to 15 hours making it shorter, quicker and cheaper thereby suggesting Kenya as a hot tourism destination with at least 48 American companies and organizations like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Google, IBM, General Electric, and Pfizer having their regional hubs in Kenya already.
The travel, tourism and hospitality industries expect an increase in employment opportunities for Kenyans as flight captains, air hostesses, tour guides, travel agents, hotel managers, game rangers and car hire service providers among other travel, tourism and hospitality related sectors.
