The recent visit to Kenya of Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, inventor of the online giant Alibaba.com online retailer, seems to have sparked a further "safari effect" on the Chinese people and especially on that medium-high range of tourism that in recent years has literally Supplanted by the Japanese, in terms of quantity and quality of excursions around the world.
After the recent trip to the tycoon between Nairobi and Maasai Mara, tour operators in Beijing and other Chinese metropolises have increased considerably, with plenty of "fully booked" lodgings for September Of the great annual migration.
Some Maasai guides admitted candidly that they started studying the language.
Kenyans are very much involved in learning foreign idioms in a short time, but the Chinese are still very hard on them.
The Kenya Ministry of Tourism has also decided to make a decisive move on China's marketplace, in order to remedy the decline in influx of visitors from Europe.
The Kenya Tourist Board took part this year at the three major trade fairs in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
"In the first months of 2017," said KTB director Betty Radier, "we received 14,000 visitors from China, against 10,000 in the same period last year, an increase of 34%. No other country has been able to do the same. "
Considering that in 2016 there was an increase of 60%, reaching an entry of 47,000 citizens of the People's Republic. If the trend continues, they will soon be the most assertive foreigners in Kenya.
For the record, it is to be admitted that many of them are managers, technicians and workers who work on large works contracted by national companies, but a lot of people love nature, safaris and excursions, especially in savannah, in the Rift Valley And Upcountry.
Those who fear a new colonization are now resigned, but the invasion of Kenya does not seem to respond to these features, like other backward nations.
The interest of Jack Ma and other Chinese billionaires from this point of view is significant.
It is logical that you then learn how to read the ideograms even to Maasai.