TOPIC: DISCUSS THE CONCEPT OF TOURISM PRODUCT DIVERSIFICATION IN KENYA PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERSIFICATION Kenya has traditionally

been regarded and developed as a coastal (beach) and wildlife safari destination. Kenyan National Tourism Policy seeks to develop and diversify tourism products in Kenya. Potential exists for spreading tourism to new areas away from the most visited and at times crowded destinations. These areas include: Lake Victoria
Western Region, e.g. Kakamega bull

North Rift, e.g. Kerio valley and sports Central region, e.g. Mt. Kenya Eastern Provinces, e.g. Kitui Nzambani rock North-Eastern Provinces e.g. sand dunes DIVERSITY OF TOURISM PRODUCTS AND SOURCE MARKETS. The traditional beach and wildlife, safari products, being rather passive products, are not in line with the changing travel trends and patterns where tourists want to have a multiplicity of activities and experiences and thus, there is need to develop and diversify tourism products. There is need to facilitate development and promotion of other products such as:

Eco-tourism Sports tourism Cultural tourism Conference tourism Shopping tourism

For a long time, the Kenyan tourism sector has been dependent on the traditional markets of UK and Western Europe. There is therefore need to focus elsewhere especially to markets in the Far East, Eastern Europe and North America. In the tourism sector, Kenya is world renowned as a safari and beach destination. Despite being rich in the diversity of tourism resources and attractions, the country is, however, weak in promoting the wide range of tourism products. The strategies to develop and diversify tourism products will focus mainly on Eco-tourism;

Conference Tourism; Sports; and Cultural Tourism. Diversification is thus critical in ensuring future and sustained success of the tourism industry. TOURISM STANDARDS There are some basic requirements that have to be put in place to support the tourism diversification efforts of the Kenyan government. Tourism has many components comprising the overall "travel experience." Along with transportation, it includes:

Accommodation Food and beverage services Shops, entertainment Aesthetics Special events

It is not common for one business to provide the variety of activities or facilities tourists need or desire. This adds to the difficulty of maintaining and controlling the quality of the tourist experience. To overcome this hurdle the government of Kenya will work together with relevant stakeholders in order to ensure consistency in product quality and service delivery. To achieve the required levels of tourism product diversification, the following questions are very vital for all the stakeholders to answer. What is new or innovative idea do we invest or venture in to diversify the current product offering? Do we target a new geographical area with the product? Does the product offering target a new market or the existing market? Is our venture going to offer new experiences to the potential customers? Is our product unique in the market place? Is it Innovative enough to use the appropriate eco-technologies? Is the product Market or demand driven? Is our new product based on a viable product range? Will the product be able to have our organization linked to other tourism enterprises?
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Diversification with aim of Contribution to Poverty Alleviation

Uplifting the living standards of the people is the essence of all development. In ensuring that diversified tourism product has a component of poverty alleviation, one should ask: How many peoples standards of living will be uplifted directly or indirectly by the diversified product offering? What kinds of benefits are actually going to accrue to the beneficiaries of the diversification of the product offering, whether in terms of monetary gain to individuals or groups, economic empowerment, social or cultural enhancement, training opportunities etc? This is because the product is aimed at providing the participants in the tourism product offering with a larger market base where the benefits mentioned are gained. LINKING DIVERSIFICATION TO CONSERVATION Most of Kenyas tourism thrives from the diversity and availability of natural resources. The conservation of these resources is thus critical for profitability and especially biological sustainability of tourism products offered in Kenya. On the other hand, diversification can only succeed where there is willingness by the local community to undertake the protection of natural resources that support the existence and growth of these diversified tourism products. They will only do this if they benefit from the consumptive or non-consumptive use of these resources. Conservation here should thus be looked at in terms of asset preservation. An essential component of the diversified product to be offered, therefore, is to indicate how the project intends to contribute to the conservation of the natural resources base. In formulating a diversification plan for a tourism product, one should thus to provide answers to the following questions: What are the natural resources in the target area? What is the current state of the environment? (Good, degraded etc.) What are current land-uses? (Agriculture, livestock grazing trading etc.)
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 Are there ongoing conservation activities and which? Will my product promote the conservation and protection of resources? How will it enhance conservation? Which resources will it protect and how? Who will undertake the actual conservation? What technologies will be in use for the product and are they environmentally friendly? Diversification away from high volume, low yield tourism is a priority for Kenyans tourism sector. This can be articulated through Kenyas development of tourism strategy with the aim of increasing the yield per tourist, reducing both temporal and geographical seasonality, reducing dependence on foreign tour operators and shifting the tourism sector towards a sustainable model. Tourism in Kenya is dominated by mass tourism at the Coast and in selected national parks. This form of tourism is potentially damaging to the environment and to local communities, as well as being highly seasonal. Diversification of Kenyas tourism will need support for expertise in the development of niche areas of tourism and for the small enterprises that can deliver these tourism products. KEY BENEFITS OF DIVERSIFICATION TO THE KENYAN TOURISM SECTOR
1. It is a natural complement to tourism and can develop in a symbiotic, rather than a

conflicting, relationship. In effect this reflects the fact that the many forms of tourism can complement each other: mass tourism in Kenya can deliver a large market to which alternative tourism enterprises can then access and broaden the product base allowing further development of touring circuits and enhancing the competitiveness of Kenya in international markets. This will attract high yield tourists who will appreciate the environmental and cultural heritage resources of Kenya. The accessibility of the European tourism generating market is an advantage for this situation.
2. It provides an opportunity to change away from the limited number of Kenyas key

tourism markets;

3. It will reduce the chronic seasonality experienced in the beach tourism resorts, and

consequently will increase accommodation occupancy in the shoulder months and offpeak;
4. It will reduce the intense geographical concentration of wildlife tourism at large the

countrys national parks. This will benefit the economy of rural regions by generating and capturing tourist spend and employment in the rural areas where the local people live.
5. It will diversify Kenyas tourism products to allow development of sectors such as

culture, heritage, eco-tourism and food and wine tourism. It therefore encourages diversification away from the wildlife tourism developments experienced at the national parks and beach tourism on the coastal region of Kenya. 6. It encourages increased quality of tourist products and support services to meet a discerning market demand;
7. It will reduce dependence on foreign tour operators. Overdependence on tour operators

means that destinations cannot determine their own market or prices, and most revenue leaks back to the tour operators for instance; Somak safaris and Pollmans are international tourism companies that repatriate a lot of profits to their home countries as a result of the tours that they organize for people from the western countries. If there was the intervention of the local tourist companies, most of the tours will be done from Kenya, thus benefiting the local citizens.
8. It will reduce the need for Kenya to compete on price. Currently Kenya is highly price

competitive against other African destinations, but this will change in the future as a result of diversified tourism product. Diversification into high quality products will insulate against price competition.
9. Diversification will also have broader benefits as it will dominantly be crafted and

delivered by Small and Micro Enterprises (SMES). This will have the benefit of ensuring that the economic benefits of tourism flows (particularly spend and employment) are

captured by the local community, entrepreneurship skills will be developed and regional areas of Kenya will become competitive in terms of tourism. Policy support for diversification must therefore be effective at the local level in terms of ensuring that municipalities and SMEs can access both expertise and funding. Effectively, diversification will depend upon tourism products that are delivered at the local level by SMEs, supported by financial incentives, delivered by a trained workforce and supported by co-operative arrangements between SMEs in particular destinations (networks and clusters). 10. Tourism diversification enables the business people to plan for the future market demands for the tourism product. This is especially from the fact that the people can acquire funds from financial lending institutions to develop their services to the potential visitors. DIVERSIFIED TOURISM PRODUCTS Adventure tourism This involves a certain element of danger, whether real or percieved which adds to the challenge presented to the tourists. This involves indulging in to sporting activities such as hang gliding, ski diving, and parasailing. This kind of sport can take place in both more and less developed areas but it is likely to be in less developed areas and it is outdoor oriented. Other types of adventure Tourist activities include: big-game hunting and fishing, Hiking; Horse riding; climbing; Mountain biking; Ice rock climbing; Naturalist tours; Paragliding; and Camping on private concessions. Village tourism This refers to tourists staying in or near a village, often traditional villages in remote areas learning about the village and local cultural way of life and customs and often participating in some village activities. The village owns, manages and builds the tourist facilities and services and therefore receive the direct benefits that emanate from tourism. An example of this is the Kenyan Maasai community where the European tourists like visiting and spending their time with them and studying their traditional activities.

Farm and rural tourism

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Farm tourism refers to working farms that supplement their income with some form of tourism business, most commonly from accommodation by renting extra guest rooms in the farm house to tourists or converting a separate farm building to accommodation units. It involves also the provision of camping facilities, operating a farm house restaurant, selling of farm products and leasing fishing rights on a farm. This form of tourism is developed for its economic benefits of supplementing farm income with some income. It can provide an opportunity for the urban communities to experience and better understand the agricultural activities through exposure and actual participation in the activities involved. Farm tourism can also offer scenic views and potential for activities like horse riding, fishing, hunting and hiking as important attraction activities. Residential tourism This form of tourism refers to second homes used for the purposes of vacation by owners and in some cases retirement homes purchased or leased by retirees originating form a different area. These houses may be bungalows, villas, townhouses, or apartments. These bring the direct benefit of income generation for an area through leasing or purchase of the property. Camping and caravan facilities This is a popular tourism in many areas and is combined with other forms of tourism activities such as trekking and hiking in the scenic areas and general site seeing or touring activities. Ethnic, nostalgic religious and youth tourism This involves the tourism activity where people visit their ancestral or own original homelands and places with personal historic associations. Places of religious pilgrimage require development depending on the local situations and the extent that the local religious organizations provide the necessary visitor facilities. Youth tourism requires organization of transportation and development of youth hostels and other types of inexpensive and grouporiented accommodation. These facilities should be located near the destination of attraction feature e.g., park, recreation area, or archaeological or historic site. Green tourism This is a kind of tourism that involves an attitude or philosophy that is sustainable and that has regard for and the respects of the landscape, the wild life, the existing infrastructure and cultural heritage of tourism destinations. The government of Kenya can invest on going green and in the long run there will be green environment that can serve as a tourist attraction and can draw the
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attention of many tourists from within and abroad to enjoy the green tourism product. Alternative tourism. This is a form of tourism that involves travel between members of different communities that seeks to achieve mutual understanding, solidarity, and equality among the participants. This nature of tourism will encourage a spirit of national cohesion and promote ethnic understanding and national unity. It will in turn create an environment where other forms of tourism will thrive easily and boost the countrys economy. Ecotourism This is a form of tourism that involves travel to relatively undisturbed and uncontaminated natural areas with the specific objective of observing studying, admiring, and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals as well as any cultural manifestation found in these preserved areas. Kenya can facilitate this kind via the practices of preserving and maintaining natural forests e.g. Mau forest, Mt Kenya forest and Karura forest. This will attract the tourists who love natural environment and at the same time, it will lead to growth of many plants and animal species. Architectural/City or urban tourism. Kenya is developing the city of Nairobi through expanding and increasing the infrastructure levels in Nairobi city. There is a super high way that is coming up and recently there is the new international airport that is under construction and in the near future this will serve as a tourist attraction site because people can travel to see the structures in the city. MICE tourism. The Kenyan government has also invested in the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions tourism especially through developing the Kenyatta international conference centre as a facility for hosting the international conferences and conventions. CHALLENGES OF TOURISM DIVERSIFICATION IN KENYA Illiteracy of the people Most of people in Kenya are illiterate and this state of lack of knowledge makes it hard for diversification efforts as most of people think of the old ways of income generation and not diversifying the tourism sector to have unique products that will attract income from tourists Poverty
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The largest of Kenyas population consist of poor people who only concentrate in satisfying the basic needs instead of different tourism products that can generate more income. This makes them unable to venture in other businesses because they lack capital to do this. Management structures of the Kenya government There is a lot of bureaucracy in Kenyas administration structure. This further complicates the channels through which those who want to venture in diversification projects get the authority to continue with their investment ideals. This is sometimes discouraging and some investors may even withdraw altogether. Resource allocation The government of Kenya concentrates more on other sectors of the economy when allocating national resources that it does for the tourism sector. This sees the sector lagging behind in terms of diversification efforts and no dedicated efforts are made to differentiate the tourism product. This makes it hard for diversification of the tourism products in Kenya. People and society / Political instability There is a strong social and cultural resource base in Kenya, which is very important to tourism. These skills, mobility of labor and entrepreneurial spirit are some of the basic capabilities, within a neo-classical economic development model, for a region ready to boom. Tourism product diversification was interfered with in terms of the fore mentioned capabilities from investors in Kenya especially during the post election clashes that happened in Kenya in 2007/2008. This can even kill the diversification efforts of the Kenyas tourism products. Infrastructure Physical infrastructure in Kenya is a basic precondition for the development of tourism and is entering a phase of positive reconstruction. General hard infrastructure (transportation, sewage, etc) is vital also for tourism. Soft infrastructure, such as the development of tourist information networks and the development of human capital may not yet have expanded but they have started to develop. Currently this presents a major challenge to diversification of the tourism product because of accessibility of the tourist destinations.

Environmentally sustainable tourism

Tourism is of course adapted to the local natural resources, everywhere. Wildlife tourism has in so many cases led to exploitation of social and natural resources. Alternative tourism as a principle employs the sensible use of local natural resources, which should also be considered as economic resources. Thus, the heritage of the local communities is protected for the present time and for the generations to follow. The environmentalists have presented a real challenge to diversification efforts of the tourism product as they campaign for protection of the environment while the investors want to develop the lands that have attractions and they must temper with the natural vegetation in their diversification efforts. Land Land is significant resource for socio-economic and political transformation. This transformation will depend on the formulation and implementation of national land policy which will facilitate the process of land administration, computerization and an enhanced land legal framework. Availability of suitable land, respect for property rights to land and address of human-wildlife conflict are some of the essential requirements for growth diversified tourism product. The tourism sector collaborates with the Agriculture and Rural development; and Environment, Water and Irrigation Sectors to ensure land related concerns are addressed. This has presented a real challenge in diversification of Kenyas tourism product. Government and tourism It is encouraging that central government has prioritized tourism in the development procedure. What is a rather serious shortcoming, however, is that government has not yet developed a sturdy organizational structure to design and produce tourism development legislation and facilitate its implementation. Further, there is little evidence that notions of diversification and sustainable development have penetrated the tiers of government. Planning has been with little reference (if any) to issues of diversification, environmental respect and sustainability is considered as a major weakness in the tourism development process in the country. Resource management There are some cases where resources may or may not have clear management. Besides there is evidence that finance for the maintenance of such elements, that can enrich a diversified tourist product, is rather limited. For example the national parks and other natural monuments may have potential for supporting related tourism activities that is not considered, or in any case not
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implemented, by the responsible bodies. This has also presented a serious challenge in the diversification concerns by the stakeholders. State finance and support There is evidence that the government is rather oriented towards mainstream wildlife tourism options. It also seems that the allocation of funds is rather centralized. The Ministry of Tourism shows an active interest in tourism but lower tiers of state actors in tourism. Generally, the funding of tourism diversification efforts from the government is very minimal, which has led to a challenge to diversifying the tourism products in Kenya. Insecurity Insecurity in most of the potential diversifiable areas is a serious threat and challenge to investors and investment efforts. The security relates to the protection of properties developed by the investors, communities living in those areas and visitors. This situation has been exacerbated by the state of insecurity in the neighboring. For instance, the Kenyas war with the alshabaab militants in Somalia makes it hard for one to even think of investing in the war stricken areas because even the clients or tourists will not visit the place for security reasons. CONCLUSION To sustain the tourism Sectors contribution to the economy and achievement of the Vision 2030, a number of interventions and strategies need to be put in place to address emerging issues and challenges as well as diversification in the Sector. Some of the strategies and interventions to be implemented in collaboration with other sectors include: increase of resource allocation; improvement of security; fast track regional integration initiatives; development and improvement of the infrastructure; increasing in investments; strengthening Research, Innovation and Development; expansion of the product choice and range of tourism facilities to include cultural, conference, sport and community based tourism. REFERENCES Lawson and baud-bovy,(1998) tourism and recreation: handbook of planning and design. Architectural press, UK . Inskeep, e. (1991) TOURISM PLANNING: An Integrated and Sustainable Development Approach, John Wiley & sons, Canada.

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