COVID-19 AND TRAVEL AND TOURISM IN KENYA: PRODUCT IMPROVEMENT AND DIVERSIFICATION

Abstract

Kenya’s key tourism products have mainly centered on African Safari and beach destinations. This is due to the fact that, the country is well endowed with a long coastline and a diversity of wildlife species. Over the years, there has been over dependency on the nature-based products as the main source of tourism revenue and over 80 percent of the industry’s earnings are driven by nature-based tours. Whilst recognizing the importance of nature-based products, much effort is needed to diversify the industry to include a wide range of other products. Kenya’s international tourism arrivals grew by 3.9% to 2.05 million in 2019, while domestic tourism grew from 3,645,144 in 2017 to 3,974,243 in 2018, recording a 9.03% growth (GoK, 2019). The major purpose of visit within the international market is holiday (73.9%) followed by business and conference tourism (13.3%), visiting friends and relatives (6.7%) and finally other purposes such as sports, medical related purposes and education (6.4%),