They must be booking with travel agents who have lower rates and they probably book and pay many months before the travel!!!

How much is this much talked about local tourism worth by the way?

Kenya itself has no saving culture so I dont how people can give precise estimates on this local tourism.

Taking school children and low class families free of charge to game parks does not constitute "local tourism"...these type of tourist will only be able to buy some ice cream worth 20 bob at the entrace of the parks.

Even if you shove 10 million Kenyans into parks and reserves they still wont come close to a tenth of Western tourism worth.

We talk of guys who will sleep in those bush hotels and lodges for up to 2 weeks on average sio watu who after watching Lions will head back to sleep in Kibera and Langata...

And by the way its much difficult to develop local tourism...For instance what will make Kamau to spend 20K to go hike the top of mount Kenya when he was born in Nanyuki and see nothing new in that trip? Plus he will say that the place is near so one day he will make the trip anyway!

I have never set foot in Tsavo yet I pass right trough it by car/flight 10 times a year and i have money to do so...I keep on saying one day I will visit, no hurry since the place si ni hapa hapa tu!!!

While in China I met chiners porters on the foot of the Greatwall who has never visited the Greatwall themselves yet I was there visiting it for the second time in my visit to China.

Wachaneni na ujinga mwingi.

You will be surprised that an all inclusive 7day holiday package at Mombasa - for a tourist from the UK - costs about 100k including flight and hotel.

If it was you, you'd pay 15k a night totaling 105k for hotel alone (note return flight to london is 100k).

You just made me laugh so hard. When I was young back in Naks, I did one of these bus trips, I think we paid Sh5, I bought a mango, kashata, icecream ya karatasi (cools) and spent a whole Sh10 on domestic tourism.

At this rate, why should we bother with the west. Lets all go domestic tourism, where exactly at riverroad can I exchange my Sh10 for dollars.

Kwani where do all the middo crass and upper class driving range rovers, mercs, etc go on holiday? If each one of them took 2 holidays a year, at coast, mara, samburu etc it would be a big boost for local tourism.