Kenya's program to align itself with the nations that have tourism as one of their major resources has begun, but its fruits will not be seen until next year.
The good news, in short, is that hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccines are arriving, but the slowness with which they are distributed and administered does not predict, unless extraordinary acceleration, what was promised by the Government last July, or 10 million adults vaccinated by the end of the year and 26 million by June 2022.
On the strength of this "vision" one of the most important European charter companies, Condor, has announced that it is unlikely to resume flights to Mombasa before the winter of 2022-2023.
"Barring changes and improvements in the international and Kenyan situation," said Condor CEO Magdalene Hauser, "we will not restart before the end of next year.
For Kenyan tour operators, according to reports in the national press, this would be good news. For us sincerely, it must be the maximum expected time, otherwise tourism will be seriously affected by competition from all the other exotic destinations that will surely leave earlier, being already more advanced in the vaccination process and in the creation of the so-called "covid free corridors".
In the meantime, another 880,000 Moderna vaccines have arrived in Nairobi, as well as other AstraZeneca from Lithuania to provide second doses to those who had already received the same British vaccine, and the first Johnson & Johnson vaccines have also landed through the African Union.
Yesterday in Malindi, 100 tourism workers were vaccinated, with the delivery of a first supply of vaccines that was honestly expected to be more robust.
It is not the fault of Kilifi County, in this case, because the distribution is decided and carried out in the capital by the Ministry of Health.
We will see in the next few days at what pace the administrations in Malindi and Kilifi will proceed, but after the optimism aroused by the possible opening by the Italian Government, there is much less confidence in what can happen in Kenya to create the conditions to see the Italian charters land in Mombasa and tourists equipped with green passes to be transported to their preferred destinations. This could eventually happen freely, with scheduled flights, when Italy decides to ease restrictions for its leisure travelers (even if not for organized tourism), limiting itself to "advise against" the destination as almost all other European nations already do.
Next stop, October 25.
Beyond the chatter, we will see how many vaccines Kenya will have administered, how many will have been delivered on the coast and what Italy will finally decide.
As always, we will update you step by step.