Case Study: Tourism in Kenya

Geography: AQA GCSE, topic 5.1.11

Tourism in Kenya

Kenya is in East Africa. In 2000, its GNI per capita was $800. In 2019, it was $1,200. Kenya used tourism to help grow it to develop.

The Kenya Tourist Board created a website and campaign called 'Magical Kenya', which advertises Kenya's beaches, safari parks, golf, and white water rafting internationlly.
In 2009, the Kenyan Minister for Tourism halved visa fees for adults and removed them for children.

Tourism is now 15% of Kenya's exports and has created 1.1 million jobs in Kenya.
Tourism is worth 8.8% of Kenya's GNI.
Sustainable hunting and sustainable forestry can be supported by the fees that tourists pay to enter Kenyan national parks, like the Maasai Mara National Park.
Kenya's HDI has risen from 0.467 in 1990 to 0.579 in 2018.

Although tourism accounts for 8.8% of Kenya's GNI, this has been falling since 2015.
Tourists' preferences can be very short-term. Investing in manufacturing is more likely to be certain and long-lasting than investing in tourism. There is almost a fashion element to people's travel preferences.
The awareness campaigns about Kenya's wildlife may have led to increases in poaching. In 2018, the Kenyan government proposed imposing the death penalty for poachers.