Effect of terrorism on demand for tourism in Kenya

This article uses a dynamic panel data model to analyse the effects of terrorism on demand for tourism in Kenya. We use annual data from 2010 to 2013 for a widely dispersed set of 124 countries of origin covering Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa. The result suggests that a 1% increase in fatalities significantly reduces tourist arrivals by about 0.13%. This translates to a reduction of about 2507.5 visitors per year and roughly 157.1 million Kenya Shillings lost in tourism revenue per year for every one unit increase in fatality. Other proxies for terrorism, such as incidence or casualties, have a similar effect, indicating the robustness of the results. On the other hand, previous visits have a strong and positive effect on the level of current arrivals.