My little knowledge of the coast is that we have high season and low season.Low season starts May to August.At that time most hotels close down for renovations or cut down on staff.Makes business sense.
2014 is no different only that this time we have some terror scares.

The other thing I know is that most investments in the tourism industry are by foreigners and they repartriate most of the profits not to mention the "All inclusive " packages.

Some hotels declare losses every year so government gets zero.

My grandfather once told me that for a seed to germinate it must first "rot and die" then germinate into some new strong plant.

Maybe its time for our tourism sector to "die" so that it can rise up stronger with a wise range of clientele not just those who issue advisories.

Yes some people will suffer in the short run.

Whether its dying the right way am not sure but would pray we offer suggestions on better ways we may know instead of blaming "our facing East"

"The number of hotel workers sent home due to the slump in tourism is now more than 7,500 after about 3,000 were sacked in the past week.

The slow business associated with the traditional low tourist season was compounded by travel advisories which were recently issued by the United Kingdom, the US, France and Australia.

According to the Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers (KAHC) Kilifi county branch chairman Philip Chai, about 5,000 workers were laid off in Malindi and Watamu resort towns as a result of the low season and the travel warnings.

“The tourism sector in Malindi and Watamu towns is on its knees due to the low season and the recent advisories which were issued by the Western countries,”

However, he expected the hotels to re-open between mid-July and October depending on the resumption of Italian charter flights."

I agree. The Chinese are misers, they cant save our tourism industry. However, the Brits have proven to be petulant clients, and Britain still thinks it is a world power that can arm twist countries into doing its bidding. We need to outgrow our dependence on British tourism. There are other countries in Europe,..France, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Italy ...so first, we need to fire Ole Lenku and Dinded Fiekos and hire competent security experts, and second we need to grow the capability to target these non English speaking guys...like reduce taxes for flight, hotel and tour operations from these places, do the same for institutions that teach their languages. The govt must be willing to take a revenue hit to grow tourism in different directions and be serious about security otherwise these ill intentioned travel advisories will keep getting deployed against us as economic weapons.

Yet Whitesands is still charging locals 18k per night!

Let them close.

Facing East and their Butt facing West.....They will get a proper ass kick from the west