Tourism in Kenya

Kenya is an East African country surrounded by Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. Tourism in Kenya is a major foreign earner after agriculture. The main tourism attraction sites include game reserves, national parks, the renowned Rift Valley as well as the Coast.

The national parks as well as the game reserves contain millions of animals as well as plant species which attract tourists from all over the world. Tourism in Kenya has solely been supported by beach-tourism, eco-tourism, cultural-tourism as well as the sport-tourism.

This is in contrast to the popular belief by many that the industry has grown hugely due to the conservation of nature.

Just like any other growing industry in the world, tourism in Kenya has been characterized by a number of ups and downs. In the early 1990s, this industry was faced with the challenge of decreased tourist numbers after publicized murders of several tourists.

This played a major role in the declining of foreign revenue in the country. However, this took a major turn when foreign revenue earned from the tourist was higher than that earned from the sale of coffee.

In the recent past, tourism in Kenya was faced by another blow when the country was faced by the ethnic clashes that hit the entire country after the 2007 national elections.

Tourism in Kenya won the Best Leisure destination in Shanghai, China in April 2008 even after the 2007/2008 post election clashes. This, according to Ministry was to verify that indeed Kenya has a unique world acclaimed tourism product.

There are a total of ten game reserves as well as nineteen national parks that the visitors have to choose from when they choose to tour Kenya. This country also has marine parks that a visitor can see once in the country.

There are also lakes in the country that are a major source of attraction some of these are in the Great Rift Valley which in itself is a tourist destination.

There are many factors that promote tourism in the country. These include the climate that is favorable to the different people that like to spend their time in country.

Another major reason as to where tourism in Kenya is favored is the fact that, this land, for a long time has enjoyed peace for the largest part of her history.

By : Jackline_Mwathe