East Africa seems to be working hard to draw tourists into their countries as the news recently has been quite a flurry of activity in the Tourism Sector - from talk of new hotels coming to East Africa to the building more airstrips in the various national parks.  Tourist numbers are up in all East African countries and it seems everyone wants to capitalize on that fact.

Many lodges are refurbishing their facilities and airlines are looking to new routes connecting the major tourist hot spots, e.g., Kenya Airways will fly direct from New York in October, hoping to bring more visitors from the U.S. into Kenya.

On the safari front, many tourists are now looking to do safaris in all the East African Countries on their first visit and cover as many national parks as their budget will allow them. There has been an increase in gorilla treks in Uganda as their fee for trekking gorillas is lower than Rwanda’s, though Rwanda’s fees remain at US $1,500.