A walk through the streets of Mombasa City at the Kenyan Coast makes you want to savor coast delicacies. And there is no better way to sell the food culture at the coast than with the annual Mombasa Food Festival 2021.
The festival’s 2021 edition went down at the Mama Ngina Waterfront Park on Saturday and Sunday. Food vendors from every corner of the Coastal counties made their presence at the park with a food stalls.
Each stall showcased a certain type of coastal delicacy – making it a culinary delight festival.
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About Mombasa Food Festival
The Mombasa Food Festival is an annual event that supports and cultivates the region’s food culture. Different food vendors from coastal counties – Kwale, Kilifi, Lamu, Mombasa, Taita Taveta – turn up.
They are the ambassadors of the region’s scintillating food culture and they always turn up in droves.
Mombasa Food Festival 2021. [Photo/najatfoodie]
Mombasa Food Festival 2021
Aware of the delight that comes with the festival, the 2021 Mombasa Food Festival edition welcomed thousands of residents at Mama Ngina. Curious international travelers with a knack for Coastal cuisine were not left behind either.
The festival was a springboard towards celebrating World Tourism Day. Mombasa County government organized the festival running through to Monday as a way to promote business.
Mombasa County Tourism Chief Officer Aisha Abdi on Saturday said the food festival was a platform for entrepreneurs in the food sector. There were at least 70 food vendors at the festival.
Abdi further noted that the presence of both international and local tourists augured well for the event.
She notes that these are the eyeballs the event always targets every year.
What’s The Importance Of the Mombasa Food Festival?
The gastronomic delight of the festival is pivotal in driving the region’s tourism. History has it that those Swahili dishes worm up to the hearts of local and international guests visiting the coast.
Coupled with a rich holidaying history, food adds up to the magical touch of Mombasa and surrounding counties.
Food vendors at the festival reportedly made good money from their exhibitions. Some landed bigger business opportunities.
Hotels at the Coast also got an opportunity to market their products and services during the festival.
Kenya’s Tourism Rebound
The Mombasa Food Festival came hot on the heels of a rebound plan by the Ministry of Tourism under Najib Balala. The government anticipates full recovery of the sector by 2024.
Data by the Tourism Research Institute (TRI) shows Kenya has hitherto received 305,635 international travelers between January and June 2021.
This number is short of 262,213 of the total number of international arrivals to Kenya in 2020.
Domestic tourism – since 2020 when travel restrictions eased up – ruled the tourism landscape. More Kenyans visit more places within the country more than they ever did in the past decade.
Their support in the industry, has somewhat, cushioned further job losses occasioned by the pandemic in 2020.
With the mass rollout of vaccines in the US and Europe, Kenya is optimistic that the industry will get back to normalcy by 2024.
