Figure 4 – Maasai Warrior
The key use of the Maasai Mara is for tourists who come to seek the “safari experience”. This has bought many advantages for Kenya. As well as building hotels, money had to be spent in the development of other areas such as agriculture, transport and communications. This included the improvement of hospitals and public utilities such as electricity supplies and telephone systems. This was to cater for the numbers of tourists. These improvements, as well as benefiting the tourists, have also benefited the locals. Tourism has provided direct and indirect employment for thousands of people. It has also given a great awareness for the conservation of the landscape, vegetation and wildlife, and the preservation of the traditional way of life of such people as the Maasai. In recent years things have changed for the Maasai. They now have a share in the money made from entrance fees and hotel bills. The funds go to two local councils who divide the money among the Maasai clans that own the land on the reserves.
The following quote, taken from Kenya By Heather Blades, by a spokesman for the Maasai shows that tourism can have a positive impact and be advantageous if managed correctly: “Tourism will bring employment to the area, and if the hotels and tour operators only employed local people, this would have a big impact on the community’s decision to allow tourism.”
However, tourism has also brought disadvantages for Kenya, including the Maasai Mara. Environmental disadvantages include the fact that increasing numbers of tourists can actually result in the destruction of the environment and loss of habitats in order to build the communication network. Areas frequently visited by safari trucks are damaging the fragile vegetation and so causing soil erosion and pollution problems such as litter. Having too many animals in an area can destroy the natural environment. Keeping big animals such as elephants away from people’s farmland is another problem.-
The economic disadvantages are that the country doesn’t gain the full benefits of income from overseas visitors – only 15% of money spent on a holiday reaches the host country. Some of the local people, such as farmers or fishermen may lose their livelihoods in areas where tourist facilities are developed. People who used to live and keep their herds in the National Parks have been forced out, losing their land and their traditional way of life. Numbers of visitors to the game reserve go up and down, which doesn’t create a stable income for the workers in the tourist industry.
Social disadvantages are that local traditions are disappearing faster in favour of copying the visitors. The tourists look down on the local people and treat them badly.
Although tourism in the Maasai Mara is seen in all travel brochures to bring benefits for the Kenyan people and its wildlife, this is not always the case. The images in the brochures show idyllic scenes of open plains, with little traffic and tourists looking at animals relaxing in their natural habitats (Fig 5), when in reality it is completely different (Fig 6), shows large numbers of safari vehicles flocking to the area where one of the “Big Five”, a lion, has been sighted. This causes damage to the environment, animal’s habitats, and stress to the animals.
Figure 5 – Travel Brochure Safari
Figure 6 – Safari: the Reality
The Daily Telegraph in December 2007 stated that “Research has shown that cheetahs in national parks have started to hunt at midday, where there are no tourists present, as they are harassed so frequently by safari vehicles.” Wikipedia also states that “s are also to be found, although their numbers are threatened, chiefly due to tourist disruption of their day-time hunting.” Together, these two quotes indicate how tourism can have a negative impact on the wildlife in Kenya.
Mombasa
The coastal town of Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya, with a population of half a million people. It is located in the South East part of Kenya, lying on the edge of Indian Ocean, and the total size is 1002 miles. It has the best natural harbours on the whole coast, having two ports, one old and one new. Centuries ago, traders from Arabia anchored in Mombasa and set up businesses and built ‘Arab Towns’, which included mosques where they could worship Islam. This influx of Arab merchants has shaped how Mombasa is today with over 50 mosques and a large Muslim community. Muslim women are often seen wearing the black, loose fitting bui bui dress, along with a black head covering (hijaab), and they also sometimes wear a veil (nikab) (Fig 7). Because many people on the coast are Muslims, the festivals and ceremonies of Islam are very important occasions.
Figure 7 – Traditional Muslim female attire Figure 8 – Shanty town
Today Mombasa is a city of contrasts, with exotic luxurious buildings and a sprawl of informal settlements or ‘shanty towns’ at the edge of the city (Fig 8). Mombasa plays an important part in the country’s economy, not only from imports and exports, but also as a tourist destination, as it has the best white sandy beaches and coral reefs that Kenya has to offer.
I am now going to discuss how the above factors have had both a positive and negative impact on this area. With the popularity of Mombasa as a tourist destination, there have been advantages for Mombasa and its population. New facilities have had to be brought in to cater for the needs of the tourists. The tourist resorts need airports, new roads to resorts, buses, hotels with ‘western facilities’, and services such as water (Mombasa now has a reliable water supply), sewerage and electricity. All these needs have created jobs for Kenyans, so people have migrated from rural areas, to gain work.
However, this increase in population has added to the shanty towns as most of the jobs created are unskilled and poorly paid. Seventy to eighty percent of the population of Mombasa live in the shanty town area. These shanty towns often have no safe drinking water, so disease spreads quickly in an area where health care provision is limited. More than half of Kenya’s urban population now live in poverty.
Sir R. Sanders stated “Tourism has come to be seen in Mombasa as being of no benefit to the local population. Despite the massive growth in tourism, only a limited number of locals have a stake in it”. The National Geographic
This quote reinforces how little tourism can benefit the local people.
There has also been conflict between western visitors and the local Muslim community, as tourists do not always understand or follow the local traditions or respect the cultural differences.
“The traditional Muslims also feel under threat from the thousands of tourists who flock to Kenya’s Indian Ocean beaches. They are often young, on holiday and insensitive to Muslim attitudes. The sight of scantily clad or drunken Westerners on the streets has contributed to Islamic conflict”. The Observer, Sunday 1st December 2002
Past and recent conflict has also had a negative impact on the area, and the falling number of tourists has not helped this. Tourist numbers peaked in 1990 but since then the numbers have fallen, with severe economic consequences for the country and its people.
For example, in 2002, The Paradise Hotel was bombed, by a Somalian group linked to Al-Qaeda. This had a dramatic effect on tourism.
“The Australian Government confirmed that there was a possible terrorist threat in Mombasa. It said threats against Westerners in Mombasa are high. The foreign office in Britain issued a ‘generic warning’ to travellers to Kenya”
The Independent, 30th November 2002
Kenya’s recent problems in 2008, which have been sparked off by a presidential election, the result of which has been disputed, have resulted in 1000 people being killed and forced more than 250,000 from their homes. “There should be more than 30,000 visitors at the height of the season. But the hotels lie empty. Over the last month, 20,000 people working in tourism have lost their jobs. This will also have an impact on this area and its people.” These two quotes highlight how conflicts can have an enormous effect on tourist’s decisions to travel to Kenya, which in turn affects the lives of the people who live there.
Sustainable Tourism
Due to the negative impact that tourism can have, other ways to develop tourism without causing damage to the country have to be evolved for tourism to be sustained within Kenya. The Kenyan Government is keen to develop alternative venues for tourism and in doing this it hopes to reduce the detrimental impact of visitors at the most visited spots. They also wish to promote other forms of attractions. One of the proposed ideas is health spas; Kenya has lots of geothermal springs, an example being Lake Bagoria.
Another idea is to extend the existing 36 golf courses as this is a popular pastime for some tourists. Further ideas include cruises on Lake Victoria and the building of conference centres to attract a regular trade of business travellers. Increasing the number of tourist venues would bring job investment opportunities to a wider range of people and regions in Kenya. However, these ideas might also have a negative impact and cause environmental damage if not done properly.
So tourism must be seen as a sustainable industry but take into account ecological and environmental factors. This is called Ecotourism. Ecotourism invests in and supports the protection of the environment, respects local cultures and involves local communities to ensure equity for all share holders rather than the few. Conservationists will be called upon to give professional advice.
“Most of all it is our culture that we must protect. It must be made clear how the negative impacts of tourism will be overcome by the positive ones. If we can be sure we will be better off by changing then we will welcome tourism.”
Book – Kenya by Heather Blades
This quote shows us that tourism could be affecting the local cultures. The local people will only welcome change if the tourism is beneficial.
For the future, tourism will have to be more low impact tourism which directly benefits local communities and provides opportunities for these communities to have control over local tourism.
One example of sustainable tourism is the ‘Kaya Kinondo Ecotourism Project’. This is set in a 30-hectare forest south of Mombasa. The local community have formed this project which offers controlled access to the sacred forest (Kayas). Only limited numbers of visitors are allowed and these visitors have guided tours where the community share information on the local culture. The tourists also get the chance to visit the village and interact with ‘traditional’ locals such as the Medicine Woman (Fig 9).
Figure 9 – The Medicine Woman at the Kaya Kinondo Ecotourism Project
In conclusion, it would seem that tourism has given a major boost to the Kenyan economy and has brought many advantages. There is no doubt that tourism has provided both direct and indirect employment for over a 100,000 people. It has developed its road, rail and air communications systems, as well as improving services such as telephones, hospitals and public utilities. This has not only helped cater for the tourists, but also the needs for the local people.
Tourism in Less Economically Developed Countries, LEDC’s, can also bring environmental and social problems. Most of these advantages and disadvantages can apply to tourist locations anywhere in the world. However, the disadvantages may be more severe for LEDC’s. For example, management and stewardship of the environment are more difficult in countries like Kenya because they lack the human expertise and money to be as effective as More Economically Developed Countries, MEDC’s. Also, much of the technology and many of the materials which are essential for setting up the facilities and services needed for large scale tourism in LEDC’s have to be brought in from MEDC’s.
Therefore tourism must be seen as sustainable, it must benefit the locals. If badly managed, tourism will not improve the quality of life of people living in LEDC’s, such as Kenya. Most of the money will only benefit wealthy foreign people and companies.
The life expectancy in Kenya is only 49 years, and the mortality rate of infant births is 79 deaths in every 1000 live births. The Gross National Income is only 20.9 billion, in comparison to Britain’s 1151 billion. Only 46% of the population in rural areas have approved drinking water, and access to a clean water supply is still a problem for many Kenyans.
LEDC’s like Kenya need to produce as much money as possible from tourism to counteract these problems. Tourism is Kenya’s largest source of income. A large percent of the country depend on it, for a source of income, and to support their families.