By Tourism-Review.Com
Published September 5, 2011

Kenya is working on becoming a force in African tourism through diversifying its target groups of tourists.

The traditionally most prominent groups of tourists in Kenya have come from the UK, USA, Italy, Germany and France in this order. Recently, France was replaced in fifth place by India. This may seem a mere detail, yet is an important statistic in terms of the shift from Europe and the USA to Asian countries, Russia and Brazil.

Inhabitants of debt-ridden Europe and USA have stopped coming to Kenyan beaches and safari parks in the droves they used to and are slowly but surely being replaced by tourists from elsewhere, most notably from India and China.

Growth is expected to reach the 20% mark by the end of 2011 in Kenyan tourism. With a fair stretch of the holiday season still to run, the figure currently stands at 13.6%. The huge optimism has surfaced due to Kenya not being reliant anymore on traditional sectors, instead targeting its campaigns all around the globe. As Chinese and Indian tourists continue to pour in, Brazil has been targeted as the South Americans enjoy a boom of their own.

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As Egypt managed to welcome 1.8 million Russian tourists in 2010, Kenya sees no reason why she cannot attract the same high-spending customers. Russians are known for their lavish spending while on holiday and are a sensible target for any tourist organisation. Kenya is also improving her business tourism front, with a new convention centre springing up in Mombasa by the end of 2011.