Tourism Potential and Achievement of Protected areas in Kenya: Criteria and Prioritization

Abstract

Tourism is a big revenue–generating industry in Kenya, hence interest in its stability and status. But this industry is very sensitive to a number of factors that affect its performance. To help bridge realized and potential tourism of protected areas as tourist destinations, this study compared the influence of these factors and how they affected tourism achievement. Six factors (biodiversity attributes, physical landscape attributes, cultural attractions, marketing campaigns, facility endowments, and health/security risks) were considered. Scores were assigned for each factor for each protected area and mean scores determined. The mean score of factors for each protected area was considered an index of its tourism potential. This tourism potential index was used to assess whether each protected area had significant tourism potential, had achieved it, or exceeded it (tourism achievement). Only 12 (22.6%) of the protected areas had achieved and/or exceeded their tourism potential, and only 22 out of 53 protected areas (41.51%) had any meaningful potential for tourism. Generally, tourism potential scores were higher than those based on tourist numbers alone (Wilcoxon signed rank test, T = 3.00, p = 0.003), implying that tourist visits alone were not sufficient in evaluating the tourism potential of protected areas. Protected areas that had a high tourism achievement index were: Aberdares, Lake Nakuru, Buffalo Springs, Tsavo West, Nairobi, Tsavo East, Maasai Mara, Lake Bogoria, and Amboseli, respectively. Generally, biodiversity and facility endowment influenced tourist performance, and specifically the marketing campaigns, communication facilities, accessibility, and the diversity of large mammal species. These findings confirm that Kenyan tourism is mainly wildlife based and strongly influenced by facilities and infrastructure. A national tourism–based conservation strategy should be targeting protected areas that have tourism potential but have failed by improving facilities and infrastructure, rather than the current ad hoc approach.