By JONATHAN VATNER


The election of Barack Obama signaled more than a milestone in American politics. It also reverberated across the ocean, where the beleaguered tourism industry of Kenya is hoping that Obamamania will result in a resurgence of visitors to the ancestral homeland of the president-elect.

And there could be no better time for that wave of visitors to come, as Kenya’s own presidential election in December 2007 was accompanied by an outbreak of violence, including widespread killing, that brought tourism in the country close to a halt. On top of that, the United States State Department (www.travel.state.gov) continues to warn potential travelers about the risks of violence by criminals and terrorists in Kenya.

Now, the Kenyan government is predicting that Kogelo, the small farming village near Lake Victoria where Mr.Obama’s father lived and where his stepgrandmother, Mama Sarah, still resides, will draw Americans looking to trace Mr.Obama’s roots and seeking a gateway to western Kenya.

In preparation, the government is literally paving the way for visitors to reach it. Already, the road to Kogelo is done, the airport in nearby Kisumu is being expanded, and a museum telling the story of the Obama heritage is under construction and set to open late this year. A delegation from the Kenya Ministry of Tourism traveled to Kogelo after Mr.Obama’s victory to see if the infrastructure there could support a hotel, and the minister of tourism will attend the Inauguration on January 20 to promote business.

Delta Air Lines will begin four weekly flights from Atlanta to Nairobi in June. In expectation of a surge of travelers - perhaps including some of the thousands who read“Dreams From My Father,”Mr.Obama’s 1995 memoir, in which Kogelo plays an important role - several outfitters are devising itineraries around the village. Mutua Kivuitu, director of Intrepid Travel’s Kenya division, knew the time was right to plan a tour when he visited Mama Sarah’s home and flipped through the guestbook.“You can see that quite a bit of visitors from all over the world came to see the house,”he said.

Mr.Kivuitu believes many itineraries will begin in Kisumu and head west, opening up regions of Kenya heretofore untouched by tourism.

But some tour operators question whether a small, nondescript village will be enough to draw visitors. Fairmont Hotels & Resorts (www.fairmont.com), based in Toronto, manages three properties in Kenya, none particularly close to Kogelo.

“There’s not a lot of attractions you’re going to get to at the destination,”said Sean Billing, managing director of Fairmont in East Africa.“Going to see Mama Sarah’s house is not going to be the kind of attraction that pulls people there. The expense associated with that would far outweigh the value.”

But tour operators are still hopeful that Mr.Obama’s election and the publicity surrounding his father’s hometown will bring back the tourists who have disappeared since the violence of early 2008.

Mr.Kivuitu remains optimistic about the appeal of Mr.Obama’s past. “We have yet to feel it,”he said,“but we believe it is coming.”