Holidays in the resorts of Kenya at Christmas? Mass tourism but also repeaters who can enjoy one or two weeks off during the year-end break?
Everything will depend on the decisions of the European Union and consequently the reopening of the Italian Government to non-EU destinations for simple tourism and especially the official lifting of quarantine for those returning from distant destinations, even without a buffer (or at the limit after testing at the airport or in the days following the return).
If next October 7, when the measures to be implemented by renewing the Decree of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (DPCM) will be discussed, the issues of international tourism will be resolved, tour operators may still have time to try to fill their flights and hotels in Malindi, Watamu and Diani at least between December 20 and January 15, a period that has always been the highlight of the tourist season on the Kenyan coast and that last year had marked a real boom.
The opinions are conflicting: they range from the pessimism of the most important Italian tour operator, Alpitour, which foresees the restart only in 2021, to the hopes of UVET, its first competitor in terms of vacations in the so-called "long range" destinations.
"With the reopening - says Martino Dotti, Sales Manager of Settemari, tour operator of the Uvet group - we could also head to destinations in East Africa that, with their kilometer-long beaches and the large spaces offered by the tourist villages, are able to guarantee a natural social distancing".
Obviously there is a need to be official and to guarantee tourists a certain security, and Kenya with its numbers and low percentages of the pandemic, especially on the shores of the Indian Ocean, could represent one of the few real possibilities to look for the winter heat. But as said, everything is bound to the decisions of the Italian government and European directives. The association "Airlines For Europe" asked a few days ago in Strasbourg to review the parameters to define the dangerousness of each country from a Covid-19 point of view, to make distinctions and to be able to open up to situations that have not been dramatic for a long time. In this perspective, according to A4E quarantine should remain as an extreme measure for and from those countries with more problems. In these certainly does not include Kenya, nor the same country since the reopening of last August 1 to world tourism, has ever shown preclusions against Italy.
In fact, we remind you that Kenya asks yes the pad entering the country (to be done 96 hours before departure) but does not force to go out with another test and leaves the decision to the airlines. At this point it would be in the interest of Neos (owned by Alpitour) and Blu Panorama (acquired by Uvet) not to oblige Italians to the double buffer, especially for periods of 7 and 14 days of vacation.