Tourists Numbers in Amboseli National Park on the Rise as Chinese Visitors Increase

The number of foreign tourists to the Amboseli National Park has risen by more than 20 per cent to over 18, 560 visitors in the last three months, according to hoteliers. Visitors from China alone have taken up 80 per cent of the total bookings in the last three months. Over the last five months the Chinese visitors have outnumbered those from Europe, America and Canada. Amboseli has experienced the largest number of tourists in years and that all the seven lodges and hotels outside and three inside the park are fully booked.

In view of the upward trend the number of tourists between now and December could triple. The rising number of Chinese visiting the country could be linked to increased trade and contact between Kenya and the Asian giant. Chinese hoteliers have invested millions of shillings in Amboseli and recently acquired 60 acres of land and put up a Chinese lodge named the A-A.

A senior KWS warden in Amboseli, Julius Cheptei, attributed the influx of Chinese to the marketing of the Kenyan Wildlife products in the eastern bloc. Cheptei said Chinese investors have in the past one year been attracted to the Kenyan tourism sector with many buying land to put up hotels in the Amboseli. Recently, a Chinese actress visited Amboseli and Maasai Mara with a battery of news crews from her country.