NAIROBI, March 20: Tourism arrivals to Kenya slumped 44 per cent in January due to post-election violence that killed more than 1,200 people and displaced 250,000, rocking the billion dollar industry, officials said.

Unpublished government statistics showed 55,906 holidaymakers visited the east African country during the first month of the year, compared with 99,602 in January 2007.

Many rich nations advised their citizens to stay away from Kenya after it was convulsed by riots and ethnic violence triggered by a disputed presidential election.

Tourism brought the region’s biggest economy an estimated 65.4 billion shillings last year and remains its top foreign currency earner.

“We won’t be able to generate as much as expected,” Rebecca Nabutolah, permanent secretary at the government’s ministry of tourism and wildlife, told a news conference.

Kenya is famed for its pristine white beaches and game parks teeming with wild animals, and government officials are confident the sector can still top 64 billion shillings in 2008.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who becomes prime minister in a power-sharing deal to end the crisis, said in an interview this month that the country could restore investor confidence and lure back tourists within six months.

Last month, the Kenya Tourist Board said the impact from the political unrest had been worse than after bombings in 1998 and 2002 that were blamed on al-Qaeda.

It forecast losses of 5.5 billion shillings a month for the first quarter of the year, and warned of massive job losses.

On Thursday, Nabutolah estimated a total loss of between 15 to 20 billion shillings for January and February. “We hope the tourism sector will pick at the end of the year,” she said.

She was speaking at the launch of a campaign targeting the growing Chinese market for foreign trips. At present only about 1,000 Chinese tourists visit each year.—Reuters