Five of the country’s beaches — Diani, Mombasa, Watamu, Chale Island and Shela — featured in the Top 50 African Beaches Category by
Flightnetwork.com, an online travel publication.
The publication ranked 400 of the world’s top
beaches with the help of 1,000 of the industry’s
leading travel professionals.
This comes at a time when security and cleanliness
have been improved at the popular Jomo Kenyatta
Beach thronged by hundreds of visitors.
Hotel owners have praised the move, saying it will
improve business. Lido Beach Resort director Nasir
Osman Ali welcomed the clean-up and regulation of
activities at the beach, noting that visitors can now
enjoy a good environment, and without harassment
by beach hawkers.
“Previously, walking along the beach was not a
very pleasant experience because of the hundreds
of plastic chairs. They have been removed. We also
could not do good business because of traders selling
wares in front of hotels. There were very many of
them, and some were selling illegal things,” he said.
Clean
Mr Ali said business will certainly improve since the
high number of unregulated vendors used to scare
away tourists.
“Our Christmas gift has come early. The beach is
very clean. Before, there was no place to walk with
the family; now the sands are very clear and families can move freely,” he said.
“The beaches are also being patrolled to monitor
what is going on,” he said.
Mr Ali urged property owners to regularly clean-up
their beachfronts to reduce pollution.
“We will do the same and clean from our end all
the way to the water mark. I encourage all property
owners along the beach to do the same on a daily
basis to protect the environment,” he said.
Enjoy
He welcomed the Mombasa city beautification
project, noting that it had led to an increase in the
number of visitors to the resort city.
“This season is very good. It is very busy and the
Mombasa beautification project has also worked
nicely,” he said.
Hotel owners said the beaches are regaining their aesthetic value and would attract more visitors.
Mr Ali said the holidaymakers would never enjoy
relaxation at the beach as thousands of beach traders
prowled the beaches some forcing visitors to buy
their merchandise.
Mr Ali noted that if the beaches are free of illegal
vendors, it would help attract many tourists to the
resorts lining the beach.
