Making a virtue out of necessity is a concept that Africans have always lived with, even if the many, too many trinkets of civilization are helping to make them forget it too.
In any case, even if Kenyans instinctively adapt to the old adage, it is more difficult to apply it to tourism entrepreneurs who have invested millions and millions of euros on the coast and in the savannah in particular and must safeguard their present and that of thousands of local employees.
One cannot stop and wait, perhaps sitting comfortably in the shade of a palm tree sipping a tamarind juice. It is necessary to turn to the few travellers left and free to leave their country, it is the case to tempt those who can still afford a holiday and those who are not far away (if not even in the same country) love to spend pleasant and relaxing moments outside the home, visiting new places or returning to known paradises.
In short, you have to explore every slice, every crumb of potential market before raising the white flag. Evolve, open the windows instead of keeping them closed and banging your head against them in search of solutions that were already popular in the past, which at the moment would not yield.
At the moment the only solution seems to be that represented by the so-called tourism at home and in neighbouring African countries, especially those that do not overlook the Indian Ocean.
Those who have always relied on European clients (English and Americans in Diani, Germans in Mombasa-Nyali, Italians in Malindi and Watamu) do not have enough to live on at the moment. Some have even closed the resort or boutique hotel at the end of March 2020 and have not yet reopened, with all the consequences and difficulties of the case.
Others have relied on agencies in Nairobi to entice Kenyan tourism or have opted for targeted marketing to attract new customers, focusing on services that they may like: a certain type of cuisine (even raping themselves with curry on macaroni instead of the traditional "cacio"), entertainment, sports and leisure.
A fact is that coastal destinations will increasingly transform themselves, as in the case of the Italian, French and Spanish rivieras, into places for weekend entertainment and relaxation, as well as "commanded" holidays. This pandemic could mean the definitive sinking of the weeks in the resorts and also of the stays during the western winter.
For the latter solutions which have given a boost to tourism in Kenya, it will first be necessary to wait for the reopening of trips to European tourism beyond the Schengen area, then the arrival of the vaccine or a solid herd immunity which will bring down the numbers of those infected and finally the renewed confidence in travelling abroad. According to experts and airlines, in 2022 we could return to 45 per cent of pre-Covid-19 movements and in 2024 to 80 per cent.
Numbers that surely cannot be allowed to hope to make it simply by waiting.
Those who have the resources to do so need to manage themselves in the best possible way but at the same time diversify their offer, those who do not have the resources, a bit like us, do their best and do not forget to light a candle to Saint Zacchaeus, protector of hoteliers and Saint John Bosco, patron saint of tourism.