Kenya Airways buoyant despite political turmoil

Kevin Rozario

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Concessionaire Tourvest Duty Free reports that growth in sales continues, albeit at a slower pace, despite political instability in the country

South African concessionaire Tourvest Duty Free is still performing well on board Kenya Airways, despite the political turmoil and violence that the country has faced since elections in December and the subsequent fall in European tourist numbers.

According to the East African country’s newspaper Daily Nation, tourist arrivals last month fell by almost 90%.Tourvest Duty Free CEO Selwyn Grimsley told DFNIonline.com: “In general terms, we have seen a slowdown in growth of inflight sales, but have continued to show growth on the year before the election. European routes, which make a modest contribution to our business, show the largest adverse sales impact, which is not surprising following the media attention given to the post-election situation in Kenya. We are satisfied with performance across all routes, given the effect that media attention has had on the travelling public, as evidenced on other airlines flying the Nairobi route.”

Intra-African and Asia/Pacific routes have remained buoyant and Grimsley was upbeat about the continent as a whole, describing growth as “very good” across its airline concessions there: South African Airways, Kenya Airways, InterAir, Air Namibia and Virgin Nigeria. “Our other African airline contracts continue to perform in line with expectations, showing strong year-on-year growth,” he said. “As far as the future is concerned, a political settlement is required to instill confidence in the travelling public. Once this is in place, we expect a gradual return to the strong growth trends of the past and remain confident we have an attractive business proposition in Kenya.”

In Tourvest Duty Free’s latest figures for the year to June 25 2007, that revenue growth trend was up by 32%. Tourvest Duty Free is part of Tourvest Group’s Retail Merchandising division, which enjoyed revenues of R971m ($126.5m) to June 2007, up 29%, and an operating profit of R95m ($12.4m), up 22%.