Mohammed Hersi . A hotelier passionate about Tourism & Governance in Africa

It is now official that Thompson Airline the only charter flight from the UK into Mombasa will only come back in winter 2015. Allow me to state a few things. I appreciate the fact that Thomson was flying to Mombasa and they opted to leave and in addition they made dramatic move to evacuate all the tourists they had brought to Mombasa. Allow me to lay down a few facts so that we do not  get misinformed. Fact No1: Thompson flight was 1 flight a week bringing on average 270 passengers to Mombasa for a 7 or 14 days holiday.  Fact No2;  Thompson was using a few select resorts at the Kenya coast and many of the resorts were not even getting their guests . I can speak for both Sarova Whitesands during my tenure they left due to rates issues and they also stopped using Voyager Beach Resort due to rates issues. Fact No3: If suppose Thomson flight was fully booked all year round and I will even allow them full flight in the low season it means they will have brought 14,040 passengers including many who buy ticket only and end up in private residence and Mtwapa. Now the numbers of British tourists in 2013 was 180,000 + which means Thompson figure is hardly 6.5%.  The lack of Thompson flight is not what is hurting us. What is hurting us MOST is the Non but essential travel advisory making Mombasa and good part of Kenya coast a no go zone area for the British tourists. Once that is lifted then KQ, BA, into Nbi and ET will bring us load of English tourists into Mombasa some via Nbi or Addis . Tourists on scheduled flights are normally better  yield clientele. Therefore it is misleading and totally wrong to keep piling our misery on the exit of Thompson flight. What we need once security is sorted out which I believe we have now done so is to lobby the UK government  to lift the Non but essential travel so that a would be British traveller can happily and freely choose to travel to  Mombasa and Kenya coast.