3.2 Tourism and development

The previous section showed there was a potential for countries to attract a great deal of money from tourism and it explained why countries wanted to both expand their tourism offer, to encourage more tourism, and to encourage more tourists. This can be transformative for countries wanting to develop infrastructure both for its population and its tourists.

Part of national tourism strategies is also, generally, to encourage people to stay for longer (particularly so they can travel away from the main tourism areas into lesser known ones) and to spend more money with the aim of as much direct income as possible staying in the country.

One of those countries that wants a higher tourist revenue for its development is Kenya. Kenya had a national marketing strategy from 2011 (Kenyan Tourism Board). Its aim then was to become the most visited destination in Africa and ‘to market Kenya as the home of human origin and as an all-year-round diverse, sustainable and authentic tourism destination’.

Kenya recently published its National Tourism Strategy 2025-2030. This says that by 2030 it is aiming for:

• 5 million international tourists per year (doubling the number of arrivals before 2025)
• 2.5 million jobs to be created (approximately 2 million jobs were supported before 2025 so this would be more than doubled)
• KES1.2 trillion in revenue (approximately £6.7 billion when revenue was £2 billion before 2025 so this would be more than tripled).

How will it do this?