Serena hotels says Kenya 'must be joking' about tourism figures

A leading Kenyan hotel chain has disputed official figures for tourist arrivals, saying violent attacks by militant Islamists have scared away far more tourists than the authorities admit. The Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) said on Friday that arrivals in the first four months of the year were down 4 percent from a year earlier to 381,000. TPS Eastern Africa, which operates the Serena chain of hotels, luxury lodges and tented camps, said in a weekend statement: "We must be joking!" It said its own survey for the first half of the year showed business on the important coastal tourism circuit fell...