Travel agents stare at crisis as tourists demand refunds
Hundreds of American tourists who had booked with travel agencies to visit Kenya but were held back because of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic are now demanding refunds running to millions of shillings.
Tour operators said yesterday three quarters of them had planned to visit Masai Mara Game Reserve between April this year and February next year.
They said they started receiving demands from September when the second wave of Covid-19 started, adding that they were still processing the refunds but have not reached agreements with them on the percentages travel agencies would retain.
“We have started processing the refunds but we have to agree with them how much we will retain because we didn’t know Covid-19 would erupt. It is not our fault,” said Lily Waddington of the UK based, Magical Safaris Ltd.
She said most of the Americans were retired civil servants and the elderly who had saved money for many years to visit Kenya, Botswana and South Africa for game and beach holidays.
However, the travel advisory by the US government to its citizens against visiting Kenya and other countries in East Africa because of Covid-19 infections stopped them.
The US-based Centre for Diseases Control (CDC) recently listed Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda as countries in the region which US citizens should not make non-essential travel because of the risk of being infected with Covid-19.
Waddington also said international companies that had been tasked with insuring the Americans are also refunding their money.
She said unlike tourists from other countries in Europe, say like Spain, Americans book their travel one year before.
“Considering those who had planned to come to Kenya are elderly people who are considered vulnerable to coronavirus, it’s unlikely they will visit again which is a blow to our business and Kenya’s economy,” Waddington added.
Patrick Wanjohi, the managing partner of Into Africa Eco Travel Company Ltd, said tour operators were still assessing the number of tourists from US and other countries who are demanding refunds, adding it runs to millions of shillings.
The US dollar
“Considering the fact that the shilling is everyday weakening against the US dollar, we will be forced to dig deeper into our pockets before we complete the process,” he said.
When they booked, he said, the shilling against the dollar was trading at Sh100 but now it trades at about Sh120, adding that if the shilling continues to lose ground against the US dollar, they would be unable to refund all the money, forcing them to take bank loans.
“A weak shilling is always bad for our business. We banked the money but it’s still not enough to refund all those who booked.
When we did the bookings, we didn’t anticipate that the shilling would receive a severe beating,” said Wanjohi.
Unlike others, he added that Americans are known for their big spending which has denied the hospitality industry millions of shillings in tariffs and fees.
Ben Kipeno, the proprietor of Siria Mara Tented Camps Ltd, outside the Mara Triangle, said his company was in October forced to refund more than Sh30 million to Chileans, Brazilians, Argentines and Ecuadorians from South Americans who had directly booked to stay in the four camps during the peak season but cancelled when the second wave of coronavirus hit.
“Nobody, even them, anticipated that there would be a second deadly wave of the virus. We reached a mutual agreement and they got their money,” he said.
