A new study from the Kenya Tourism Board shows that the country received 847,810 international tourists in the first half of 2023, up 32% from the 642,861 recorded in the prior half-year of 2022.
This represents a 92% increase when compared to 929,814 tourists who visited the country during the same period in 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic), according to Kenyan Wall Street.
Kenya received 118,480 visitors from the United States, accounting for 14% of the total.
Visitors from Uganda came in second with 89,968 (10.6%), Tanzania third with 69,777 (8.2%), the United Kingdom fourth with 65,563 (7.7%), and India fifth with 42,805 arrivals (5%).
Kenya's tourism industry has benefited from the dramatic increase in the number of tourists visiting the country as tourism receipts for the first six months of 2023 soared to Sh152.6 billion ($1.05 billion), up 31% over the same period last year when they were at Sh116.2 billion ($803 million).
Tourism contributed up to 10% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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