TOPIC: DISCUSS THE CONCEPT OF TOURISM PRODUCT DIVERSIFICATION IN

KENYA

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERSIFICATION

Kenya has traditionally been regarded and developed as a coastal (beach) and wildlife safari

destination. Kenyan National Tourism Policy seeks to develop and diversify tourism products in

Kenya. Potential exists for spreading tourism to new areas away from the most visited and at

times crowded destinations. These areas include:

Lake Victoria

Western Region, e.g. Kakamega bull

North Rift, e.g. Kerio valley and sports

Central region, e.g. Mt. Kenya

Eastern Provinces, e.g. Kitui Nzambani rock

North-Eastern Provinces e.g. sand dunes

DIVERSITY OF TOURISM PRODUCTS AND SOURCE MARKETS.

The traditional beach and wildlife, safari products, being rather passive products, are not in line

with the changing travel trends and patterns where tourists want to have a multiplicity of

activities and experiences and thus, there is need to develop and diversify tourism products.

There is need to facilitate development and promotion of other products such as:

Eco-tourism

Sports tourism

Cultural tourism

Conference tourism

Shopping tourism

For a long time, the Kenyan tourism sector has been dependent on the traditional markets of UK

and Western Europe. There is therefore need to focus elsewhere especially to markets in the Far

East, Eastern Europe and North America. In the tourism sector, Kenya is world renowned as a

safari and beach destination. Despite being rich in the diversity of tourism resources and

attractions, the country is, however, weak in promoting the wide range of tourism products. The

strategies to develop and diversify tourism products will focus mainly on Eco-tourism;

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Conference Tourism; Sports; and Cultural Tourism. Diversification is thus critical in ensuring

future and sustained success of the tourism industry.

TOURISM STANDARDS

There are some basic requirements that have to be put in place to support the tourism

diversification efforts of the Kenyan government. Tourism has many components comprising the

overall "travel experience." Along with transportation, it includes:

Accommodation

Food and beverage services

Shops, entertainment

Aesthetics

Special events

It is not common for one business to provide the variety of activities or facilities tourists need or

desire. This adds to the difficulty of maintaining and controlling the quality of the tourist

experience. To overcome this hurdle the government of Kenya will work together with relevant

stakeholders’ in order to ensure consistency in product quality and service delivery.

To achieve the required levels of tourism product diversification, the following questions

are very vital for all the stakeholders to answer.

What is new or innovative idea do we invest or venture in to diversify the current product

offering?

Do we target a new geographical area with the product?

Does the product offering target a new market or the existing market?

Is our venture going to offer new experiences to the potential customers?

Is our product unique in the market place?

Is it Innovative enough to use the appropriate eco-technologies?

Is the product Market or demand driven?

Is our new product based on a viable product range?

Will the product be able to have our organization linked to other tourism enterprises?

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Diversification with aim of Contribution to Poverty Alleviation

Uplifting the living standards of the people is the essence of all development. In ensuring that

diversified tourism product has a component of poverty alleviation, one should ask:

“How many people’s standards of living will be uplifted directly or indirectly by the

diversified product offering?

What kinds of benefits are actually going to accrue to the beneficiaries of the

diversification of the product offering, whether in terms of monetary gain to individuals

or groups, economic empowerment, social or cultural enhancement, training

opportunities etc?

This is because the product is aimed at providing the participants in the tourism product offering

with a larger market base where the benefits mentioned are gained.

LINKING DIVERSIFICATION TO CONSERVATION

Most of Kenya’s tourism thrives from the diversity and availability of natural resources. The

conservation of these resources is thus critical for profitability and especially biological

sustainability of tourism products offered in Kenya.

On the other hand, diversification can only succeed where there is willingness by the local

community to undertake the protection of natural resources that support the existence and growth

of these diversified tourism products. They will only do this if they benefit from the consumptive

or non-consumptive use of these resources. Conservation here should thus be looked at in terms

of asset preservation.

An essential component of the diversified product to be offered, therefore, is to indicate how the

project intends to contribute to the conservation of the natural resources base. In formulating a

diversification plan for a tourism product, one should thus to provide answers to the following

questions:

What are the natural resources in the target area?

What is the current state of the environment? (Good, degraded etc.)

What are current land-uses? (Agriculture, livestock grazing trading etc.)

Are there ongoing conservation activities and which?

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Will my product promote the conservation and protection of resources?

How will it enhance conservation?

Which resources will it protect and how?

Who will undertake the actual conservation?

What technologies will be in use for the product and are they environmentally friendly?

Diversification away from high volume, low yield tourism is a priority for Kenyans tourism

sector. This can be articulated through Kenya’s development of tourism strategy with the aim of

increasing the yield per tourist, reducing both temporal and geographical seasonality, reducing

dependence on foreign tour operators and shifting the tourism sector towards a sustainable

model.

Tourism in Kenya is dominated by mass tourism at the Coast and in selected national parks.

This form of tourism is potentially damaging to the environment and to local communities, as

well as being highly seasonal. Diversification of Kenya’s tourism will need support for expertise

in the development of niche areas of tourism and for the small enterprises that can deliver these

tourism products.

KEY BENEFITS OF DIVERSIFICATION TO THE KENYAN TOURISM SECTOR

1. It is a natural complement to tourism and can develop in a symbiotic, rather than a

conflicting, relationship. In effect this reflects the fact that the many forms of tourism can

complement each other: mass tourism in Kenya can deliver a large market to which

alternative tourism enterprises can then access and broaden the product base allowing

further development of touring circuits and enhancing the competitiveness of Kenya in

international markets. This will attract high yield tourists who will appreciate the

environmental and cultural heritage resources of Kenya. The accessibility of the

European tourism generating market is an advantage for this situation.

2. It provides an opportunity to change away from the limited number of Kenya’s key

tourism markets;

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3. It will reduce the chronic seasonality experienced in the beach tourism resorts, and

consequently will increase accommodation occupancy in the shoulder months and off-

peak;

4. It will reduce the intense geographical concentration of wildlife tourism at large the

country’s national parks. This will benefit the economy of rural regions by generating and

capturing tourist spend and employment in the rural areas where the local people live.

5. It will diversify Kenya’s tourism products to allow development of sectors such as

culture, heritage, eco-tourism and food and wine tourism. It therefore encourages

diversification away from the wildlife tourism developments experienced at the national

parks and beach tourism on the coastal region of Kenya.

6. It encourages increased quality of tourist products and support services to meet a

discerning market demand;

7. It will reduce dependence on foreign tour operators. Overdependence on tour operators

means that destinations cannot determine their own market or prices, and most revenue

leaks back to the tour operators for instance; Somak safaris and Pollmans are

international tourism companies that repatriate a lot of profits to their home countries as a

result of the tours that they organize for people from the western countries. If there was

the intervention of the local tourist companies, most of the tours will be done from

Kenya, thus benefiting the local citizens.

8. It will reduce the need for Kenya to compete on price. Currently Kenya is highly price

competitive against other African destinations, but this will change in the future as a

result of diversified tourism product. Diversification into high quality products will

insulate against price competition.

9. Diversification will also have broader benefits as it will dominantly be crafted and

delivered by Small and Micro Enterprises (SMES). This will have the benefit of ensuring

that the economic benefits of tourism flows (particularly spend and employment) are

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captured by the local community, entrepreneurship skills will be developed and regional

areas of Kenya will become competitive in terms of tourism. Policy support for

diversification must therefore be effective at the local level in terms of ensuring that

municipalities and SMEs can access both expertise and funding. Effectively,

diversification will depend upon tourism products that are delivered at the local level by

SMEs, supported by financial incentives, delivered by a trained workforce and supported

by co-operative arrangements between SMEs in particular destinations (networks and

clusters).

10. Tourism diversification enables the business people to plan for the future market

demands for the tourism product. This is especially from the fact that the people can

acquire funds from financial lending institutions to develop their services to the potential

visitors.

DIVERSIFIED TOURISM PRODUCTS

Adventure tourism

This involves a certain element of danger, whether real or percieved which adds to the challenge

presented to the tourists. This involves indulging in to sporting activities such as hang gliding,

ski diving, and parasailing. This kind of sport can take place in both more and less developed

areas but it is likely to be in less developed areas and it is outdoor oriented. Other types of

adventure Tourist activities include: big-game hunting and fishing, Hiking; Horse riding;

climbing; Mountain biking; Ice rock climbing; Naturalist tours; Paragliding; and Camping on

private concessions.

Village tourism

This refers to tourists staying in or near a village, often traditional villages in remote areas

learning about the village and local cultural way of life and customs and often participating in

some village activities. The village owns, manages and builds the tourist facilities and services

and therefore receive the direct benefits that emanate from tourism. An example of this is the

Kenyan Maasai community where the European tourists like visiting and spending their time

with them and studying their traditional activities.

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Farm and rural tourism

Farm tourism refers to working farms that supplement their income with some form of tourism

business, most commonly from accommodation by renting extra guest rooms in the farm house

to tourists or converting a separate farm building to accommodation units. It involves also the

provision of camping facilities, operating a farm house restaurant, selling of farm products and

leasing fishing rights on a farm. This form of tourism is developed for its economic benefits of

supplementing farm income with some income. It can provide an opportunity for the urban

communities to experience and better understand the agricultural activities through exposure and

actual participation in the activities involved. Farm tourism can also offer scenic views and

potential for activities like horse riding, fishing, hunting and hiking as important attraction

activities.

Residential tourism

This form of tourism refers to second homes used for the purposes of vacation by owners and in

some cases retirement homes purchased or leased by retirees originating form a different area.

These houses may be bungalows, villas, townhouses, or apartments. These bring the direct

benefit of income generation for an area through leasing or purchase of the property.

Camping and caravan facilities

This is a popular tourism in many areas and is combined with other forms of tourism activities

such as trekking and hiking in the scenic areas and general site seeing or touring activities.

Ethnic, nostalgic religious and youth tourism

This involves the tourism activity where people visit their ancestral or own original homelands

and places with personal historic associations. Places of religious pilgrimage require

development depending on the local situations and the extent that the local religious

organizations provide the necessary visitor facilities. Youth tourism requires organization of

transportation and development of youth hostels and other types of inexpensive and group-

oriented accommodation. These facilities should be located near the destination of attraction

feature e.g., park, recreation area, or archaeological or historic site.

Green tourism

This is a kind of tourism that involves an attitude or philosophy that is sustainable and that has

regard for and the respects of the landscape, the wild life, the existing infrastructure and cultural

heritage of tourism destinations. The government of Kenya can invest on going green and in the

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long run there will be green environment that can serve as a tourist attraction and can draw the

attention of many tourists from within and abroad to enjoy the green tourism product.

Alternative tourism.

This is a form of tourism that involves travel between members of different communities that

seeks to achieve mutual understanding, solidarity, and equality among the participants. This

nature of tourism will encourage a spirit of national cohesion and promote ethnic understanding

and national unity. It will in turn create an environment where other forms of tourism will thrive

easily and boost the country’s economy.

Ecotourism

This is a form of tourism that involves travel to relatively undisturbed and uncontaminated

natural areas with the specific objective of observing studying, admiring, and enjoying the

scenery and its wild plants and animals as well as any cultural manifestation found in these

preserved areas. Kenya can facilitate this kind via the practices of preserving and maintaining

natural forests e.g. Mau forest, Mt Kenya forest and Karura forest. This will attract the tourists

who love natural environment and at the same time, it will lead to growth of many plants and

animal species.

Architectural/City or urban tourism.

Kenya is developing the city of Nairobi through expanding and increasing the infrastructure

levels in Nairobi city. There is a super high way that is coming up and recently there is the new

international airport that is under construction and in the near future this will serve as a tourist

attraction site because people can travel to see the structures in the city.

MICE tourism.

The Kenyan government has also invested in the meetings, incentives, conferences and

exhibitions tourism especially through developing the Kenyatta international conference centre

as a facility for hosting the international conferences and conventions.

CHALLENGES OF TOURISM DIVERSIFICATION IN KENYA

Illiteracy of the people

Most of people in Kenya are illiterate and this state of lack of knowledge makes it hard for

diversification efforts as most of people think of the old ways of income generation and not

diversifying the tourism sector to have unique products that will attract income from tourists

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Poverty

The largest of Kenya’s population consist of poor people who only concentrate in satisfying the

basic needs instead of different tourism products that can generate more income. This makes

them unable to venture in other businesses because they lack capital to do this.

Management structures of the Kenya government

There is a lot of bureaucracy in Kenya’s administration structure. This further complicates the

channels through which those who want to venture in diversification projects get the authority to

continue with their investment ideals. This is sometimes discouraging and some investors may

even withdraw altogether.

Resource allocation

The government of Kenya concentrates more on other sectors of the economy when allocating

national resources that it does for the tourism sector. This sees the sector lagging behind in terms

of diversification efforts and no dedicated efforts are made to differentiate the tourism product.

This makes it hard for diversification of the tourism products in Kenya.

People and society / Political instability

There is a strong social and cultural resource base in Kenya, which is very important to tourism.

These skills, mobility of labor and entrepreneurial spirit are some of the basic capabilities, within

a neo-classical economic development model, for a region ready to boom. Tourism product

diversification was interfered with in terms of the fore mentioned capabilities from investors in

Kenya especially during the post election clashes that happened in Kenya in 2007/2008. This can

even kill the diversification efforts of the Kenya’s tourism products.

Infrastructure

Physical infrastructure in Kenya is a basic precondition for the development of tourism and is

entering a phase of positive reconstruction. General hard infrastructure (transportation, sewage,

etc) is vital also for tourism. “Soft” infrastructure, such as the development of tourist information

networks and the development of human capital may not yet have expanded but they have started

to develop. Currently this presents a major challenge to diversification of the tourism product

because of accessibility of the tourist destinations.

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Environmentally sustainable tourism

Tourism is of course adapted to the local natural resources, everywhere. Wildlife tourism has in

so many cases led to exploitation of social and natural resources. Alternative tourism as a

principle employs the sensible use of local natural resources, which should also be considered as

economic resources. Thus, the heritage of the local communities is protected for the present time

and for the generations to follow. The environmentalists have presented a real challenge to

diversification efforts of the tourism product as they campaign for protection of the environment

while the investors want to develop the lands that have attractions and they must temper with the

natural vegetation in their diversification efforts.

Land

Land is significant resource for socio-economic and political transformation. This transformation

will depend on the formulation and implementation of national land policy which will facilitate

the process of land administration, computerization and an enhanced land legal framework.

Availability of suitable land, respect for property rights to land and address of human-wildlife

conflict are some of the essential requirements for growth diversified tourism product. The

tourism sector collaborates with the Agriculture and Rural development; and Environment,

Water and Irrigation Sectors to ensure land related concerns are addressed. This has presented a

real challenge in diversification of Kenya’s tourism product.

Government and tourism

It is encouraging that central government has prioritized tourism in the development procedure.

What is a rather serious shortcoming, however, is that government has not yet developed a sturdy

organizational structure to design and produce tourism development legislation and facilitate its

implementation.

Further, there is little evidence that notions of diversification and sustainable development have

penetrated the tiers of government. Planning has been with little reference (if any) to issues of

diversification, environmental respect and sustainability is considered as a major weakness in the

tourism development process in the country.

Resource management

There are some cases where resources may or may not have clear management. Besides there is

evidence that finance for the maintenance of such elements, that can enrich a diversified tourist

product, is rather limited. For example the national parks and other natural monuments may have

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potential for supporting related tourism activities that is not considered, or in any case not

implemented, by the responsible bodies. This has also presented a serious challenge in the

diversification concerns by the stakeholders.

State finance and support

There is evidence that the government is rather oriented towards mainstream wildlife tourism

options. It also seems that the allocation of funds is rather centralized. The Ministry of Tourism

shows an active interest in tourism but lower tiers of state actors in tourism. Generally, the

funding of tourism diversification efforts from the government is very minimal, which has led to

a challenge to diversifying the tourism products in Kenya.

Insecurity

Insecurity in most of the potential diversifiable areas is a serious threat and challenge to investors

and investment efforts. The security relates to the protection of properties developed by the

investors, communities living in those areas and visitors. This situation has been exacerbated by

the state of insecurity in the neighboring. For instance, the Kenya’s war with the alshabaab

militants in Somalia makes it hard for one to even think of investing in the war stricken areas

because even the clients or tourists will not visit the place for security reasons.

CONCLUSION

To sustain the tourism Sector’s contribution to the economy and achievement of the Vision 2030,

a number of interventions and strategies need to be put in place to address emerging issues and

challenges as well as diversification in the Sector. Some of the strategies and interventions to be

implemented in collaboration with other sectors include: increase of resource allocation;

improvement of security; fast track regional integration initiatives; development and

improvement of the infrastructure; increasing in investments; strengthening Research, Innovation

and Development; expansion of the product choice and range of tourism facilities to include

cultural, conference, sport and community based tourism.

REFERENCES

Lawson and baud-bovy,(1998) tourism and recreation: handbook of planning and design.

Architectural press, UK .

Inskeep, e. (1991) TOURISM PLANNING: An Integrated and Sustainable Development

Approach, John Wiley & sons, Canada.

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