VOA标准英语2008年-Kenyan Tourism in Turmoil After Disputed Electi

By Nick Wadhams
Nairobi
22 January 2008

The chief of Kenya's leading tourism body says post-election chaos¹ has sparked the worst crisis the country's travel industry has ever seen, and that hotels and suppliers are at risk of collapse² unless the political impasse³ ends soon.  Nick Wadhams reports from Nairobi.

The violence that followed Kenya's December 27 election led to a mass exodus⁴ of vacationers during the peak of the country's tourist season.  Hotels around the country have been all but empty and thousands of reservations have been canceled.

The director of the Kenya Tourist Board, Achieng Ogonga, says the industry has never experienced such a sharp downturn before, even after the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi and a terrorist attack on a Mombasa hotel in 2002 that killed 13 people.

Ogonga says that the refusal by President Mwai Kibaki and opposition⁵ leader Raila Odinga to negotiate is only making the matter worse because it has prevented the tourism industry from being able to offer deals to lure⁶ vacationers back to the country.

"We are sandwiched between the political crisis and the business," Achieng said. "We cannot make any plan forward unless the political crisis is resolved.  If they would sit today, have dialogue, sort out their issues, the economy will pick up very fast because the Kenyan tourist industry has the capacity, highly skilled people, experienced and we have past lessons."

The extent of the damage to the tourist industry has been difficult to measure, but officials say it could result in 120,000 lost jobs.  Tourism injected nearly one billion dollars into the economy last year.

Ogonga says that once a deal is reached, the Kenyan tourism industry will launch a massive campaign that will include discounts, junkets for travel writers and other enticements to drum up newly favorable press.

Despite the potential magnitude of the losses, President Kibaki and Mr. Odinga appear far from a compromise. 

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to arrive late Tuesday to mediate⁷ the crisis.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Odinga's camp announced it had filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands arguing that the Kibaki government's crackdown on protesters amounted to crimes against humanity.

At least 600 people have been killed and 250,000 have reportedly fled their homes since the violence began shortly after the vote, which observers said was seriously flawed.

1 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

2 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

3 impasse   

n.僵局；死路

参考例句：

• The government had reached an impasse.政府陷入绝境。
• Negotiations seemed to have reached an impasse.谈判似乎已经陷入僵局。

4 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。

5 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

6 lure   

n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
• He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。

7 mediate   

vi.调解，斡旋；vt.经调解解决；经斡旋促成

参考例句：

• The state must mediate the struggle for water resources.政府必须通过调解来解决对水资源的争夺。
• They may be able to mediate between parties with different interests.他们也许能在不同利益政党之间进行斡旋。