By GottaLaff
Obama is having a positive effect all over the world. Now Kenya is benefiting from Obama’s election:
Ripple effects of Barack Obama’s election are already being felt in Kenya, where the beleaguered tourism industry is preparing for an inaugural-season surge of visitors eager to trace the President-elect’s African roots.
Tour operators are starting to offer packages to Kenya with trips to Kogelo, the rural village in western Kenya just north of the Equator where Mr. Obama’s father was born and raised and where some of his relatives — including Sarah Onyango Obama, his grandfather’s wife, whom he calls “Granny Sarah” — still live.
The election “will have a big effect,” predicts Jonathan Sloan, a Kenya Tourist Board official in London. “Americans might not be knowledgeable about Kenya, but with Obama’s election it has been thrust into their imagination.” [...]
Kenya tourism officials are hoping to ride the Obama coattails to global visibility for their industry and their country. “The Obama election results became known on Wednesday, and on Thursday Kenya took a national holiday to celebrate,” says Mr. Sloan. “It’s an amazing thing for them. They’re going to promote this massively. Kenya feels that it has been put on the world map.” [...]
“It’s highly unlikely they’d meet the relatives,” says Louise Newton, a spokeswoman for Somak Holidays, a sister company of Somak Safaris in London that is offering its own Obama tours. “Initially the relatives were very available to the press,” she adds, “but now we’re getting reports of security being stepped up.”
Paying it forward.
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