An Example of how Tourism in Kenya is Reducing the Development Gap

Question 1

Advantages of Tourism

Answer 1

• Thousands of overseas tourists visit Kenya each year (0.9 million visitors in 1995 1.8 million in 2011).
• Tourism contributes over 12% of Kenya’s GDP.
• Visa fees for adults were halved in 2009 making it a cheaper/more popular destination.
• Since 2000, Kenya’s Human Development Index has increased from 0.45 to 0.55.
• 10% of all jobs in Kenya are in the tourist industry - nearly 600,000 people!
• Direct employment in large hotels (e.g. Royal Court Hotel in Mombasa).
• Indirect employment (e.g. Joseph, a mango farmer, sells his produce to many large restaurants and hotels).
• The investment from the tourist industry has also seen an improvement in the area’s roads and infrastructure.
• Street-vendors, selling crafts and jewellery, haggle with the visitors.
• Safari holidays in Kenya’s National Parks are popular with tourists searching for the ‘Big Five’ (lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros).

Question 2

Disadvantages of Tourism

Answer 2

• Studies have found that much of the money spent by tourists in Kenya stays in the large hotels.
• Many hotels are owned by foreign investors so the income generated does not stay in Kenya.
• An International Livestock Research Institute report found reserve’s animal populations have declined sharply from 1989 to 2003 due to poaching/human activity (e.g. giraffe numbers are down 95%, warthogs 80% and impala 67%).
Tourism has had an impact on Kenya’s environment (e.g. coral reefs have been damaged by the tourists and the large beach-front hotels are responsible for destroying natural vegetation and habitats).