Contribution of Cultural Tourism products to sustainable livelihoods of communities living in selected rural areas in Kisii County, Kenya

Abstract

Previous studies reveal an increase of poverty levels in certain parts of the world, particularly in the developing countries. Consequently, there have been numerous strategies put forth in the quest to reduce poverty and improve peoples’ livelihoods. Cultural tourism among other forms of tourism has been identified as a positive force for socio-economic development. Kisii County, one of the most densely populated counties in Kenya, is endowed and blessed with myriad of cultural resources which can be harnessed to enhance the livelihood of the local community. However, there seem to be no empirical studies that have dealt with the contribution of cultural tourism to the local communities’ livelihoods in Kisii County. Hence, the purpose of this study was to use Tabaka and Manga areas of Kisii County to establish the contribution of cultural tourism products to sustainable livelihoods of the local people. Specifically, the study analyzed the contribution of visual arts, myths and mythical sites and community traditional practices to sustainable livelihoods of people living in Tabaka and Manga areas. The three research hypotheses tested were that, Visual arts (Ho1), Myths and Mythical sites (Ho2) and Community traditional practices (Ho3) do not contribute significantly to sustainable livelihoods of communities living in Tabaka and Manga areas. The study was guided by sustainable livelihood framework, which is built on the belief that people need assets (natural, social, human, physical and financial) to achieve a positive livelihood outcome. An explanatory research design was adopted and a sample size of 207 was drawn from a population of 25,917. While cluster sampling was used to select 207 respondents for the questionnaires, snowball sampling was used to select 12 elders in the community who were knowledgeable with the Kisii culture as key informants. Additionally, purposive sampling technique was employed to select participants for Focus Group Discussions. Descriptive (Mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Multiple Regression Analysis), with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) were used to analyze the quantitative data collected. Discourse analysis was performed on qualitative data. From the findings, it was evident that visual arts (56.8%), myths and mythical sites (62.8%) and traditional practices (93.2%) contributed to sustainable livelihood of the local community. While the first null hypothesis (Ho1) (p= 0.039) and the second hypothesis (Ho2) (p= 0.032) were rejected, the study failed to reject the third null hypothesis (Ho3) (p=0.947). Thus, visual arts and myths and mythical sites were found to significantly contribute to sustainable livelihoods of communities living in Tabaka and Manga areas. However, traditional practices did not make any significant contribution. The study therefore recommends provision of incentives to enhance the use of traditional practices for sustainable livelihoods of communities living in the rural areas in Kisii County.