Nairobi - Thousands of wildebeest huddle together in Kenya's Masai Mara national reserve, their gazes flicking nervously between the lush grasslands on the opposite bank of the Mara River and the crocodile-infested waters separating them from their meal.

Eventually the unlucky wildebeest at the front takes the plunge and the rest follow en-masse, churning up the muddy water and lashing out at snapping crocodile jaws with powerful hind legs.

From the number of four-by-fours packed with tourists cheering on the wildebeest - or the crocodiles - you would not think that Kenya's tourism industry was still in a slump. But appearances can deceive.

Tourists are apparently more skittish than wildebeest and Kenya's tourism industry - one the mainstays of its economy - has yet to recover from the post-election violence that threatened to rip the country apart at the beginning of the year.

Over 1,000 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced as supporters of rival political parties clashed along ethnic lines following claims that the elections were rigged.

The violence lasted only a few months, and no tourist was killed - but the damage to the industry was massive.

"The problem is that most tourists make their bookings in January and February (the peak of the violence)," says Brian Heath, Chief Executive of the Mara Conservancy, as his jeep rattles along a dusty dirt track in the Mara. "If you miss this window, then there are major problems."

According to Heath, whose non-profit organization looks after a large section of the park, visitor numbers to the Mara dropped by 80 per cent during the first six months of the year.

Heath said that in August, the peak of both the wildebeest's annual migration from the Serengeti Plains and the safari tourism season, visitor numbers were still down 20 per cent. He expects this drop-off to increase to 50 per cent for the rest of the year.

The pattern has been repeated nationwide, with nervous tourists abandoning not only Kenya's many national parks but also the beaches of towns such as Mombasa on the Indian Ocean.

The economic impact is obvious to even the casual observer.

At tourist traps like the Rift Valley viewpoint - a popular stop- off just outside Nairobi - desperate trinket sellers descend like hordes of flies on the few startled tourists that stop to admire the view.

Tales of woe are also common among vendors in Nairobi's touristy Masai markets, where the carved wooden giraffes are not exactly flying off the shelves.

According to Ministry of Tourism figures, tourism in 2007 accounted for 12 per cent of Kenya's gross domestic product - the third biggest contributor to the economy behind agriculture and manufacturing.

The number of visitors grew by 12.5 per cent, bringing in 65.4 billion shillings (923 million dollars) in the process.

But all that progress disappeared as homes burned and groups of youths hacked each other to death with machetes, and the tourism ministry expects a total of just over 1 million visitors this year.

"We had upwards of 2 million tourists last year, but those figures were erased," Tourism Minister Najib Balala says. "We are working hard to rebuild confidence."

To help turn things around, Kenya is starting an advertising campaign in the US and other western markets and plans to follow this up by hitting the growing eastern markets.

"We are rolling out our campaign from October," Balala says. "Next year we will hit China, Japan and also the Middle East."

Balala expects the industry to recover to pre-election levels by March next year and then to begin growing again, ambitiously targeting 5 million tourists annually in the long term.

US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Rannerberger is also doing his utmost to persuade his countrymen and women that Kenya is secure by regularly popping up on television and pronouncing Kenya is "open for business."

But despite all the doom and gloom, there would appear to be at least one positive out of the whole affair.

Heath said that locals, who are often priced out of high-end parks such as the Mara where luxury campsites abound, have had a chance to view their own national treasures as the tourists take their bulging wallets elsewhere.

"Prices dropped and there were incentives aimed at local people," he said. "The numbers of Kenyans coming were encouraging." (dpa)