Nairobi — The National Treasury has allocated Sh11.3 billion to the tourism sector in what could help the sector bounce back to profitability owing to the coronavirus outbreak in Kenya.

While unpacking the country's spending plan for financial year 2020/2021 Treasury Cabinet secretary Ukur Yatani announced that Sh2billion of the monies will be shared in community reserves to jump-start the tourism sector and protect its players from heavy financial losses.

"Government will also provide grants to 160 communities and support to Kenya wildlife services to engage 5,500 community scouts for a period of one year, to support I propose to set aside Sh2 billion," Yatani said.

"The government will scale up the efforts to scale up the tourism sector by promoting aggressive post-COVID-19 tourism marketing and providing support for hotel refurbishment through soft loans to be channeled towards the tourism finance corporations.Sh3 billion has been set aside to support the renovation of facilities and the restructuring of business operations by actors in this industry," he added.

The allocation to the sector tops up to the Sh500 million that the government set aside earlier this year to market Kenya's tourism destinations to ensure Kenya remains a preferred travel destination globally.