Enhancing sustainable tourism innovation for community empowerment in Kenya

Tourism is Kenya’s third largest foreign exchange earner and a major employer, accounting for about 12% of total employment and 13.7% of gross domestic product. The tourism industry is based on a diverse range of natural, social, human and physical resources, but faces challenges in terms of sustainable development. For example, over 80% of all visits are concentrated in seven parks, and the seasonal nature of tourism further aggregates the stress on natural resources during peak seasons and reduces the efficiency of infrastructure and staff during low seasons. In the traditional tourism model, tourism resources are controlled by just a few investors, in contrast to community tourism, which emphasizes the involvement of local communities and the control of tourism resources by local communities. This project seeks to transfer knowledge from international best practices to serve as guidance for the development of community-based tourism in Kenya as a means of creating new high-value niche products, improving rural livelihoods and conserving culture and the natural environment.