Kenya will soon have a comprehensive tourism policy after close to four decades without one, thanks to a draft bill presented by Minister Najib Balala.

The new bill will among other things give a policy framework to the sector that has never had one since the incomprehensive sessional paper that was passed in parliament in 1969.

The bill was presented alongside a five-year strategic plan and a national tourism policy. The three will guide the sector up to 2012. The plan aims at the realization of three million visitors every year from the current 1.8 million.

It also looks at trebling national earnings from the sector from the current KShs65 billion to a possible KShs200 billion. This will be achieved by raising the average expenditure per visitor from Sh40, 000 last year to Sh70, 000 by the year 2012.

The strategic plan will however come at no mean cost as it will require an estimated KShs116 billion expenditure over the next five years. This essentially implies that the government must extend funding to the sector from the current KShs400 million to a whopping KShs23.2 billion.

The ministry of tourism is one of the least funded ministries with only an allocation of KShs400 million in the last budget.