Journal of Tourism & Hospitality
Open Access

Abstract

Economic Contribution, Challenges and Way Forward for Wildlife-Based Tourism Industry in Eastern African Countries Moses M

Moses M Okello

Many East African countries have nature – based tourism revenue as a pillar of future economic development of their respective countries. In the Vision 2030 for Kenya, tourism development is not only envisaged as a key pillar for national development, but also relied upon as a mechanism to alleviate poverty, generate foreign revenue for the government and contribute to wildlife conservation, a key support base for tourism activities. There are similar strategies for Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Unlike Kenya and Tanzania which has also a well-developed coast tourism, some of these countries are landlocked and do not have ocean coastline to provide for snorkeling, sandy beaches or marine – based tourism. Yet tourism is envisaged as a key contributor to transforming these countries to middle income economies in years to come. While this is a sound strategy for Eastern Africa countries, most tourism revenue has been based on narrow tourism products such as wildlife and national parks, and further, on a few species (the so called big five and the gorillas). Such strategy has exerted pressure on certain species (some endangered and endemic) and few parks thus thereby providing only a narrow tourism product and leaving out potential attractions (such as culture, physical features, events tourism, scenic landscapes and some unique ecological phenomena). Other challenges are political stability and governance issues, economic management, infrastructure development and various issues around capacity in the industry. In this paper, I elaborate the state of tourism in Eastern Africa countries and the envisaged role in their socio – economic development, and elaborate the main challenges to this role as well as existing potential of the tourism industry in the region.