Kenya Tourism: Case Study of Political Influence on Tourism
As one of Kenya’s leading foreign exchange earner, Tourism plays a major role in the countries economy through job creation and revenue earning. As a result it is crucial that we ensure the survival of this lucrative industry by wading off any negative influences.
These influences include but not limited to global warming, human encroachment on tourist attractions such as national parks, poor infrastructure, poaching of wildlife and our topic of discussion today politics.
Kenya is well known for its rich cultural diversity and breathtaking sceneries ranging from undulating savannah landscapes, dense equatorial forests, snow caped mountains, tropical beaches and an array of wildlife habituating in these glorious lands.
With all these natural attractions, Kenya has been ranked among the top holiday destinations of the world and more specifically the safari capital of the world and as such there is a need to ensure political stability at all times.
The regulation of the tourism industry is mostly through the government of Kenya which is charged with many responsibilities amongst them being provision of licenses; marketing Kenya and making it a destination of choice in the global market not to mention facilitation of sustainable development as apart of national heritage and prosperity.
The government hopes to achieve these through core values such as ensuring quality service delivery to all tourism stakeholders; Integrity, transparency and accountability in all operations; professionalism within the sector; efficiency and effectiveness in utilization of resources, social equity, innovation and creativity, proactive leadership and last but not least team spirit among staff and other key stakeholder.
All these are carried out through the ministry of tourism. However these core values are not always adhered to due to political wrangles within the ministry and more so the entire government body where political leaders are constantly fighting for positions of political influence.
Political strife in countries such as coups, warfare, political strikes or protests causes problematic concerns to a country’s attraction. A perfect example of this in Kenya was in the disputed 2007 general election which saw over 1000 Kenyans dead and scores of others injured in the politically instigated tribal crushes that ensued.
Most tourists feared for their safety resulting to cancellation of holidays previously booked with others cutting short their visit, the travel bun issued by countries such as the USA did do much to help the situation. Consequentially a rapid plummeting of Tourism revenues by an estimated 54% from 2007 in the first quarter of 2008 was experienced.
It fell to 8.08 billion shillings from 17.5 billion shillings in January-March 2007 and a total of 130,585 tourists arrived in Kenya compared to over 273,000 that year.
It was not until the signing of the coalition agreement between the two warring principals namely Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga with the help of the former United Nations secretary general Koffi Annan, that peace started to slowly be felt. In an effort to salvage the tourism industry, the ministry of tourism took upon itself to vigorously market Kenya as a holiday destination not only to the world but also to the locals themselves (domestic tourism) which improved by 45 %, earning the tourist sector 3.65 billion shillings out of the 8.08 billion earned revenue during that period.
The marketing outside the country has also led to an increase in the number of visitors and is slowing getting back to its peak. The improvement of infrastructure around the country, an initiative of the government has been highly beneficial as it has increase the number of investors and prospective investors in the country.
Having had first hand experience on what political strife can do to a country’s economy and in this particular instance the tourism industry where western Governments Issue irregular travel advisory to their citizens warning them of the danger should they travel to these destinations we should all be at the fore front advocating for peace with the government and the Kenyan population at large.
Some of the negatives as experienced by Kenya include a plummet in the American and European travel by over 50%. With a country suffering such fate they are easily manipulated by the western countries who ask favors in exchange of them lifting the ban. The negative publicity generated by a country’s political instability leaves little to be desired thus loosing out in the global tourism market consequential to a decline in revenue.
On the other hand if a country is politically stable there’s nothing but gains as it becomes a favourite not only to the holiday makers but also to the investors. Assurances to any visitor to the country regardless of their nature of travel i.e. leisure or business that the destination is safe and beneficial to all in terms of attractions and business opportunities only heightens the demand.
This is evidenced in statistics carried out which showed a steady increase in the years prior to the post election violence when there was relative peace and also the years following the end of the violent era. In 2007 the country received a total of 1,048,732 visitors which then plummeted to 729,000 in 2008 following the post election violence and following the peace agreement it then rose to 952,481 in 2009 through concerted efforts from both the government and the Kenyan population who decided to put politics aside and the welfare of all at the forefront.
Numbers of incoming tourists from some countries where a travel advisory was issued also experienced a steady rise towards the end of 2009 surpassing the inflow in 2007 they include United States, China, UAE, Russia, Finland and India. Visitors from neighboring countries and other African countries have also increased they include countries such as South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania.
People world over enjoy peace and harmony in their respective countries and it is only natural that they would like to enjoy the same in countries chosen as their holiday destination where their intention is to relax and have an adventurous experience which to most comes only once in a life and takes years of planning and saving.
The revenue earned also goes along way in improving the economy of the host country not to mention the fact that it acts as a livelihood for thousands who are either directly or indirectly employed. Politics should therefore be used positively towards the growth and development of the tourism industry as the reverse would only mean detriment of the same industry.
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