Tourism’s role in Kenya’s economic growth
Tourism plays a very important role in Kenya’s economy. It is a major contributor to the Gross Domestic Product, creation of investment and employment opportunities, foreign exchange earnings, and infrastructure development as well as in the expansion of the commercial sector. It provides employment both directly and indirectly to thousands of people in such areas as game parks, hotels, tour operators, transport and others. Tourism has positive impacts nearly every aspect of the nation’s life through its linkages as expressed in demand for goods and services in the agricultural, textile, beverage, transport and entertainment sectors.
It has a multiplier effect, which contributes to the general government revenue collection and the overall social economic growth of the country. In addition, tourism also plays a leading role in wealth creation as well as in poverty alleviation.

In monetary terms, earnings from tourism grew in 2004 and 2005 as the number of visitors also rose. Incomes from tourism went up by 51.9 per cent from Ksh25.8 billion in 2003 to KSh39.2 billion in 2004, and then rose to KSh48.9 billion in 2005, according to figures by the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB). At the same time the number of international visitors increased by 18.7 per cent from 1,146,100 in 2003 to 1,360,700 in 2004 and then to 1,670,429 in 2005, representing a 23 per cent rise. Most significantly, the number of tourists from North America went up by 64.8 per cent in 2005 despite travel advisory by the American government cautioning its citizens against visiting Kenya due to insecurity. The travel advisory was slammed on Kenya in 2003 following talks of threats of terrorist attack on the country and despite pleas and protestations by the Kenya Government, America has remained adamant over it.

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According to KTB, the continued good performance resulted from concerted and aggressive marketing of Kenya locally and internationally as a sure tourist destination.

The revitalisation of tourist police combined with efforts to rehabilitate the dilapidated infrastructure also helped to bring in more tourists.

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Management of tourism industry
The Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife is responsible for the management of tourism in the country. It is charged with the responsibility of formulating and implementing policies on wildlife management as well as co-ordination of planning, development, promotion and marketing of tourism. The functions are as follows:
• Formulation and implementation of general policy guidelines for the tourism industry;
• Planning, development and regulation of tourism activities;
• Licensing, classifying and upholding the quality of tourism facilities and services;
• Co-ordination and collaboration with other government ministries and departments in creating conducive environment for tourism.

In addition, the ministry oversees the operations of a number of corporations, which are charged with specific tasks. These are:
• The Kenya Tourism Development Corporation, which provides financial support and advice to investors in the tourism industry.
• The Kenya Utalii College, which trains personnel for the hotel and tourism industry.
• The Catering Levy Trustee, which collects training levy on the sale of food, drinks and accommodation for purposes of funding training programmes for the hotel and tourism sub-sectors.
• The Bomas of Kenya which is the national conservatory of Kenya’s diverse cultural heritage where traditional rituals, dance and music are performed for the benefit of both visitors and the local people.
• The Kenya Tourist Board which is charged with promotion and marketing of the destination both locally and internationally.
• The Kenya Wildlife Service which is responsible for the conservation and management of wildlife, and the maintenance of infrastructure, within the National Parks and Game Reserves.

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The Ministry works in partnership with other organisation in wildlife management and tourism development. These include local authorities, which are in charge of game reserves under their jurisdiction. The local authorities are responsible for investment and management as well as provision of the necessary amenities for tourism development within their areas.

Another partner in the promotion of tourism is the Kenya Association of Tour Operators, which is an assembly leading tour operators in the country and is responsible for establishing and maintaining service quality standards among members. Others are Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers (KAHC); Kenya Budget Hotels; Kenya Association of Travel Agents (KATA); Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association (MCTA); Kenya Budget Hotels Association; Kenya Air Charter Operators Association; and the Board of Airlines Representatives.

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Tourist attractions in Kenya
Kenya’s tourism sector thrives on the natural resources and scenic landscape. Currently, the country has 59 national parks and game reserves, which occupy 7.5 per cent of the land surface. The national game parks are managed by the Kenya Wildlife Services while the game reserves are managed by the local authorities.

The other tourist attractions include marine parks, mountains, the Rift Valley, lakes and natural vegetation. Marine parks are renown for the coral reefs, gardens and sea animals. The beaches and lagoons offer opportunities for sunbathing, boat riding and big game fishing. Similarly, the inland lakes offer a variety of attractions. Lake Nakuru in the Rift Valley is famed for flamingos, while Lake Victoria offers a variety of fresh water fish, rare birds, crocodiles and hippos. Other inland water attractions are available in Lake Turkana, Bogoria and Naivasha.

The mountains are scenic and host numerous species of wild game. Mt Kenya and Mt Kilimanjaro with their snow-capped peaks are in themselves attractions to behold. They also offer opportunity for sporting activities – mountain climbing, skidding, trekking and camping. Besides these, the country has some natural and indigenous forests such as the Arabuko Sokoke and Kakamega, which host rare wildlife, birds and insects. Besides, the country has museums, historic and scenic sites and snake parks.

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Current developments in tourism
Kenya’s main tourist attractions are the coastal beaches, mountains, wildlife, natural vegetation and beautiful land-scapes like the Rift Valley.

As stated before, the tourism industry recorded good performance in 2005 largely due to effective marketing locally and internationally. The marketing drive particularly targeted European and American markets. The result of this was increased numbers of visitors especially from Britain, Germany, Italy and Netherlands. Quite significantly, the number of tourists from America increased by 41 per cent over the previous despite the fact that the country had issued travel advisories in 2003 cautioning its citizens against travelling to Kenya due to insecurity.

The greatest breakthrough during the year was securing markets in Asia. Kenya’s tourism authorities visited several Asian countries, notably Japan, China, Thailand and Korea where they able to attract tourists. In particular, Kenya was granted Approved Destination Status (ADS) by the Chinese government and that opened opportunities for drawing many tourists from that country. ADS means that Chinese Government now allowed its citizens officially to visit Kenya. With that Kenya became the third African nation to get full backing of the Chinese Government as an attractive tourism destination for its citizens. The others are Egypt and South Africa, which are strong economies in the continent.

The government also made efforts to popularise western Kenya as additional tourist circuits in a move intended to diversify the attractions sources. Lake Victoria and its environs, Kakamega forest and Nandi hills are being developed as inland tourist attractions away from the beaches at the Coast that have always been the main centres of attraction.

. Turkana Warrior at Suguta Valley. © Camerapix

Challenges facing tourism
The main challenge to the development and expansion of tourism in Kenya is insecurity. Since a number of terrorist attacks in Kenya, the latest being in 2002 at the Coast, there is a perception overseas that the country is not safe for holiday makers. Matters have been made worse by the travel advisories first issued by America and Britain in 2003 cautioning their citizens against visiting Kenya. Although Britain later with-drew its advisories, America has not. Apart from the terrorist attack, the increased cases of crime in the country, especially in towns, including carjacking, mugging and house breakins have not things any better.

The second challenge is poor infrastructure. While there is evidence that work has started to improve road and rail networks and provide electricity and water and other services, much has not been achieved. The roads are still in poor state while the rail transport has not picked up well. Supply of water and electricity remains a constant problem, especially in the tourist hotels.

Thirdly, the country continues to depend on traditional sources of tourist attractions – beaches, mountains, scenic landscape wildlife – while its competitors have diversified into other areas like eco-tourism or sports tourism. Without diversifying into other areas, Kenya’s tourism base is precarious and puts it at a disadvantage compared to other destinations.

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Given the fact that the natural vegetation and wildlife that the country depends on for tourism are faced with extinction, the future of the industry looks rather doubtful.

The fourth challenge is that the bulk of the countries tourism attractions are concentrated at the Coast. But as past experiences have shown, any negative occurrence in the region completely destroys tourism. This happened in 1997 when ethnic violence rocked the place and also in 2002 following a bomb attack of a hotel at the Coast.

Fifth, many players in the industry particularly hotel workers and tour guides are not trained, hence do not provide quality service or are unable to expand their scope of operations and generate more money. It is not lost that the only training institution, Kenya Utalii College, is located in Nairobi, far away from the main tourist region, which is Coast. Besides admitting only few students, it does not cater for the junior workers in the hospitality industry, who equally need training.

Six is the conflict between human and wildlife. Some communities living near game parks encroach into the parks in search of land for agriculture and pasture, hence are a threat to the animals. In some cases, the people kill animals that stray and destroy their crops or kill their domestic animals.

. Maasai Dancer. © Camerapix

Putting tourism on a recovery and growth path
Reviving and revamping tourism requires a number of strategies, which are contained in the Masterplan for the sector. The first is intensifying marketing campaigns through vigorous media publicity, trade fairs and visits to potential markets locally and abroad. On this score, the target is to convince the world that Kenya has the best natural tourism attractions and is a fairly safe country for visitors. Kenya’s foreign missions abroad are also to be fully engaged in marketing the country wherever they are.

The second strategy is to diversify tourist attractions by moving away from the traditional sources – beaches, vegetation, wildlife and beautiful landscape – to other areas like eco-tourism, sports or conference tourism. This requires innovation, thorough planning and packaging to give tourism a new outlook.

Three, expediting the process of infrastructure rehabilitation and development. In particular, roads, railway and the airports need to be rehabilitated and expanded to increase their capacity. Roads leading to the national parks and other attractions need to be upgraded and maintained in good condition.

Four, intensify the campaign to eliminate crime in all parts of the country and particularly at the Coast and other tourism areas. The re-organisation of the tourist police unit, enhancing police patrol along the beaches and clearing the beaches of idlers are some of the specific activities that are set to boost security for tourists.

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Five, expanding and improving training programmes to provide quality and high calibre workers for the hospitality industry. It is instructive that the Kenya Utalii College has set to up-grade its courses and offer degree programmes and as well mount short and sandwich courses that target particular groups of workers. More-over, the college is planning to set up a campus at the Coast, which is the mainstay of the country’s tourism attractions.

Six, involve communities living around game parks and other natural attractions in conservation and encourage them to practice eco-tourism. They should be allowed to benefit from the natural resources like grazing in the parks or have funds generated from the parks ploughed back into providing them with essential amenities.

Seven, provide incentives to hoteliers, tour operators like tax waivers so that they can expand their business or reduce their charges to attract more visitors.

Eight, promote local tourism by offering attractive packages like cheap air fare and hotel charges for Kenyans to visit the national parks and game lodges and other attractions and from that increase revenue for the sector.

The other strategies are provision of visitor education pertaining to available resources and their inter-dependence without compromising our concern on biodiversity; establishing active partnership with all stakeholders in tourism and at the same time respecting their rights; equitable distribution of benefits accruing from tourism as well as respect and safeguarding of the local customs and culture.

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