Tourism Product Diversification
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Transcript of Tourism Product Diversification
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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