Nairobi  - Violence and unrest that put tourists off going to Kenya in recent months brought losses of 61 per cent to the country's key foreign currency-earning sector, National Tourism Office head Ongonga Achieng was quoted Saturday as saying.

Instead of expected earnings of 21 billion shillings (220 million euros), tourism pulled in just eight billion shillings, he told the Daily nation newspaper.

The branch originally had planned on an 18 per cent growth in tourism for the months of winter in Europe - main season for Kenya's coastal tourism magnet.

The political violence that followed presidential elections at the end of December led to a rash of holiday cancellations, with only 274,000 tourists arriving, instead of the expected half a million. As a result, some 20,000 people in the tourism sector were without work. (dpa)