The confirmation comes from the Association of Italian Tour Operators (Astoi) at the opening of the BIT, the Italian Tourism Exchange in Milan: Kenya is among the tourist destinations that in recent months have gained percentage points as the number of Italian travellers on holiday and above all have largely returned to the liking of our compatriots, among long-haul destinations.

According to the president of Astoi Confindustria, Pier Ezhava, 2023 marked a turning point, after the stop of the pandemic, returning in terms of travel by Italians in the world to the numbers of 2019, which until now was taken as a very positive year.
'Everything points to us being able to go 10% higher than last year,' Ezhava told ANSA, during the opening of the Tourism Exchange.

Certainly the increase in interest in hot African destinations such as Kenya, Tanzania, and Madagascar has gone hand in hand with the war in Israel and Palestine, which has demotivated many tourists, not only Italians, from choosing Red Sea holiday destinations, usually among the most popular due to their shorter distance from Europe and consequently lower prices.
As the president of Astoi also reiterated, all this climate of positivity and hope is taking place in spite of the overt problems of airline ticket prices and the small number of charter flights, which means that the healthy competition that created offers in past years is disappearing.

From this point of view, Kenya in particular is in the process of perfecting the so-called 'open skies' policy, which would see more scheduled flights landing especially in Mombasa, also involving flagship or new low cost companies that could be interested in creating connections and Italian stopovers even starting from other countries, to contrast the almost monopoly of Ethiopian Airlines, in fact the only company to have a comfortable scheduled flight that starts from Italy and arrives in Mombasa.

Lately, Emirates' subsidiary FlyDubai has also activated a line to Mombasa from Dubai, but the connection with Italian airports is still laborious, with very long waits and not always with advantageous fares.
Certainly, beyond the organised and 'mass' holidays run by tour operators, the return to the coast of routes such as Istanbul-Mombasa (Turkish Airlines) and Munich/Frankfurt-Mombasa (announced by Lufthansa for this summer) could give new impetus for the 2024-2025 season.