Kenya Tourism Federation (KTF) has tasked Strathmore University’s Centre for Tourism and Hospitality to conduct a baseline survey on the level of awareness of the Single Tourist Visa(STV) and use of National Identification cards for cross border travel for citizens of the three partner states – Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
The STV was launched in February 2014 by the heads of states of the member countries with an aim of doubling the number of tourists visiting the three partner countries. From the research, the university will help to determine how citizens in the three member states know about the STV programme while crossing the three borders.
Under the STV, tourists will only be required to pay Ksh 9,100 (US$100) at the border entry point, as opposed to the previous practice of paying visa charges for each country. “It is envisioned that there will be a significant increase in regional and international tourists when tourism sector stakeholders take full advantage of the single tourist visa and use of National ID in packaging and marketing tours and accommodation facilities,” said KTF CEO Agatha Juma.
Dr Joe Wadawi of the Strathmore Centre for Tourism and Hospitality noted that the survey will identify opportunities for operators and government institutions. It will also put in place frameworks to improve the current level of awareness among the private tourist sector operators, travelling publics and other stakeholders in the tourism industry.
“The audit will increase the level of awareness of the STV and propose ways to promote closer engagement between the Government, institutions and the tourism private sector,” he said.
The study aims at exploring pertinent mitigating frameworks for challenges and barriers to this initiative and consider potential avenues to sensitize citizens on free movement of East African citizens with a targeted increase of tourism business, and a ripple effect to the other sectors of the economy.
