CHAPTER TWELVE

CONSOLIDATING AND EXPANDING TOURISM

The Challenges:

Tourism in Kenya accounts for about 10% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). After agriculture and manufacturing it is the third largest foreign exchange earner (18%) after tea and horticulture.

In Kenya, tourism remains one of the most important economic activities. It is a major source of employment. Tourism builds and strengthens international standing and bolsters investor interest and confidence and can prove to be one of the most effective ways of generating wealth and employment.

The sectoral policies in tourism remain outdated, and an attempt to develop a new policy paper has taken over 5 years still awaiting cabinet approval.

In Kenya, bad roads, power outages and water scarcity translates into high costs and has a negative impact on tourist experiences. Security and safety are key determining factors for the success of the tourism industry in any destination, and Kenya is perceived to be an insecure destination.

To improve international and domestic consumption of tourism goods and services, sufficient marketing and promotional activities must take place. This initiative requires sufficient regular funding to facilitate activities involved in marketing the destination. The government continues to consistently under-fund the Kenya Tourist Board in spite of growing revenues. Funding has stagnated at around Kshs 250 million and the development partner, the European Union, has withheld funds for the last three (3) years. About Kshs 1 billion has not been released because the EU wants the money spent on tourism activities within EU member countries such as the World Travel Market (London) and the International Tourism Board (Berlin) and not in other regions, such as the Far East.

A policy to encourage domestic tourism and local investment in the tourism industry is long overdue. This should go beyond availability of credit for building and expanding tourism facilities. Easier access to local advertising, popularisation of domestic tourism and public-private investment in the leisure industry is vital.

Lately, there has been a shortage of hotel beds, especially during high seasons

Our Commitments:

With more substantial support for the initiatives already taken by the Kenya Tourist Board we will diversify tourism activities that currently revolve around beach areas and wildlife to spread across the country. We will ensure that each region of Kenya fully develops and achieves its tourism potential. This will be done through Product Diversification Strategy maximizing on what is available in each region of Kenya, for example, adventure tourism, sports tourism, eco-tourism and cultural tourism.

We will harmonise wildlife tourism and land-use policies.

We will encourage investment in new hotel construction to increase bed capacity.

We will develop new tourist destination sites on the coast, Northern Kenya and in other parts of the country after conducting thorough environmental impact studies.

We will upgrade the standards of less popular parks and extensively market them.

We will ensure availability of marketing funds to a minimum of Kshs 1 billion and progressively peg it to a percentage of revenue generated to make Kenya compete effectively in the world tourist market.

Your ODM Government will:

• Launch new tourist circuits throughout the country.

• Actively promote domestic and regional tourism. Incentives and special affordable packages will be developed for Kenyans to encourage them to travel within the country. This promotion will help Kenyans from different backgrounds appreciate each other’s culture and way of life.

• Promote Cruise Tourism. We will build an ultramodern cruise terminal dedicated to cruise ship markets in Mombasa. A steamer service will be launched in Lake Victoria.

• Build an ultramodern Conference Complex with accommodation to challenge Egypt and South Africa as the conference destination in Africa. Hosting international exhibitions is also lucrative, and Kenya needs to be proactive and seek to host many exhibitions and conferences.

• Encourage and certify more home-stays. This concept is an emerging phenomenon in modern visitor experience. The visitor stays in a host home and pays for bed and breakfast. Through this arrangement, the visitor is able to experience how Kenyans live. The rural Kenyan is able to benefit from such tourism receipts. This concept fits in well as many Kenyans have good rural homes spread across the country which are not fully utilized. This concept will improve room capacity with minimal investment and also ensure that tourism wealth spreads to all parts of Kenya.

• Review and restructure the Kenya Tourist Development Corporation to become more responsive to the needs of the industry.

• Work in partnership with other East African Community members to provide multi-destination tourist experiences and joint promotional activities.

• Establish a workable compensation scheme for economic losses due to wildlife.

• Devolve tourism area planning to secure community participation

• Review and upgrade the training provided at Utalii College and ensure it remains as an internationally recognized tourism training institution.