Kenya's earning from tourism could fall by 23 percent to 50 billion shillings ($813-million dollars) in 2008 owing to the impact of post-election violence and chaos, an official said Friday.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) managing director Achieng Ongong'a projected that earnings could fall sharply from the 65 billion shillings ($1.05-billion dollars) that was earned in 2007.

"Despite this current scenario, I am quite optimistic that the sector will fully recover by the first quarter of next year," he said.

Ongong'a said the tourism sector had recorded 134 000 arrivals in the first quarter of this year, compared to 315 000 visitors during the same period last year — the lowest number of first-quarter arrivals since 2004.

Tourism Ministry Permanent Secretary Rebecca Nabutola said that special packages were being developed to help boost the sector, an important source of hard currency for Kenya.

"We are working with both the hoteliers and tour operators to come up with packages that will benefit both the customers and themselves," Nabutola told reporters.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga's accusations of election fraud against President Mwai Kibaki after the December 27 polls sparked violent resentment that claimed at least 1500 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands.

In addition to shattering Kenya's reputation as a bastion of stability in a region beset by conflicts, the political crisis choked the mainstay tourism and agricultural sectors.

Effectively, the treasury slashed the 2008 growth forecast from 7.0 percent to between 4.5 and 6.0 percent.

The scale of violence and destruction of property prompted Kibaki and Odinga to launch negotiations that resulted in the creation of a coalition government that was sworn in on Thursday.

AFP