COURSE TITLE: DOMESTIC TOURISM

COURSE CODE: BTM 424

1. INTRODUCTION
Definition

 The World Tourism Organisation defines Domestic tourist/traveller as

any person residing in a country who travels to a place or places
within the country outside his/her usual environment for a period not
exceeding 12 months and whose main purpose of visit is leisure,
business and or other purposes not relating to exercise of an activity
remunerated from within the place visited.
 Jafari, 2000 defined domestic tourism to be one that involves people
visiting destinations within their own country’s boundaries. It is one
of the major categories of tourism (others being inbound and
outbound). Defining the domestic tourism market size and extent of
its activity is problematic and at times, the sector has been measured
poorly and infrequently due to its diffused activity focus.
 It does not involve the crossing of international borders at entry
points.

History of Domestic Tourism

 As early recorded history provides a glimpse into ancient tourism

activities, domestic tourism is in fact the first form of tourism
practiced. It has been a well-established practice, happening in every
country or region in the world. (butter trade within villages, regions,
cities)
 By 1914 Blackpool in Lancashire, the world’s first working-class
seaside resort, had around four million visitors per summer.
 Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, had more visitors by this time,
but most were day-trippers who came from and returned to locations
elsewhere in the New York City area by train the same day.
 While domestic tourism could be seen as less glamorous and dramatic
than international traffic flows, it has been more important to more
people over a longer period of time.
 From the 1920’s, the rise of Florida as a destination for American
tourists has been characterized by “snowbirds” (a northerner who
moves to a warmer southern state in the winter).
 There were more travellers from the northern and Midwestern states
traveling a greater distance across the vast expanse of the United
States than many European tourists travel internationally
 Key phases in the pioneering development of tourism as a commercial
phenomenon in Britain were driven by domestic demand and local
journeys
 European wars in the late 18th and early 19th centuries prompted the
“discovery of Britain” and the rise of the Lake District and Scottish
Highlands as destinations for both the upper classes and the aspiring
classes. 
 The railways helped to open the seaside to working-class day-trippers
and holidaymakers, especially in the last quarter of the 19th century

2. Characteristics of Domestic Tourism/Tourist

1. There is a strong relationship among tourism and visiting friends
and relatives and religious pilgrimages, which has been found in
countries with a long history of domestic tourism (Rogerson and
Lisa 2005). 
2. Domestic tourism is less visible in statistical terms and tends to be
serviced by regional, local, and small family-run enterprises

3. Domestic tourism and the resulting benefits are more widely dispersed
within a country than those of inbound tourism.
4. Whereas inbound tourism is focused in and around international
gateways and major icons, domestic tourism activity is more diffuse.
5. Nationally or regionally, significant attractions may serve to act as
demand generation for domestic tourists while their appeal to the
inbound market may be limited.
 6. From an industry perspective, the financial barriers for businesses
wishing to enter the domestic sector are significantly lower than they
are for the inbound sector.
7. As a consequence, the domestic sector is typified by smaller,
independently owned and operated accommodation facilities and
attractions.
8. By the same token, the travel trade plays a relatively smaller role in
domestic tourism as these are independent tourists. The automobile
is their preferred mode of transportation.

Characteristics or traits of domestic tourists

(a) Domestic tourists show a proclivity (tendency, liking)

to stay with friends and
relatives or prefer moderately rated facilities over international hotels for
accommodation.
(b) Domestic tourists also tend to be frequent repeat visitors to preferred
destinations.

(c) In essence, domestic tourists are rather last minute oriented and more
spontaneous in the kind of activities they choose, hence more difficult to
plan for. Nevertheless, it is easier to predict this market’s travel schedule
(peak season), unlike the volatile nature of international tourism due to
other external factors.
(d) The domestic client is socially oriented rather than activity based,
desiring experiences in a group. However, many lean more towards
psychocentrism as evidenced by their search for symbols of home like
food and drinks rather than being adventuresome. For instance, those
who travel from Nairobi to the Kenyan coast for hedonism (pleasure
seeking) end up doing the same activities they would have otherwise done
in Nairobi. In other words, they change the usual environment
momentarily without much change in the activities: shopping, alcohol,
roasted meat, and clubbing.
(e) While an international tourist may feel safe and secure within the tourist
ghettos and enclaves, his Kenyan counterpart will find such an
 environment to be boring, encouraging them to venture out to
find freedom and mingle with other Kenyans in night clubs, shopping
malls, restaurants, pubs, and other entertainment spots.
(f) The domestic tourist spends less on other services associated with what
they have already purchased – massage, buying of souvenirs, tour
guiding services etc
(g) Domestic tourists are cost conscious, little or no money is spent on other
services deemed unnecessary apart from key services e.g. transfers back
to the airport/hotel. However, more is spent on food and beverages than
on excursions suggesting that such a client actually arrives lacking the
motivation to explore the destination extensively.
(h) The domestic client makes shorter stays and usually visits a particular
place for a particular reason. A case in point is the domestic conference
tourist who stayed on average of 0.9 days between 2010 and 2012 while
the international delegate stayed for 5.6 days on average
(i) Having less purchasing power, the domestic tourism practices are
therefore defined to a large extent by price and accessibility
(j) the domestic traveller seeks the best price-quality ratio, or often the
lowest possible price, in all segments of the tourism value chain:
accommodation, food services, tourism activities, shopping, etc.

(k) Being an invisible client due to their travel behaviour such as the use of
own transport, the domestic traveller remains an overlooked client having
distinct attributes as shown below (table 2).

Table 2: Attributes (traits) of a domestic traveller

Spends more on drinks Prefers full board package

Less savvy and easy going on Drinks and eats a lot hence very
food and service expectation expensive to keep if on all-inclusive and
full board

Prefers local cuisine Less adventuresome

Prefers hotels with strong Purchase for holiday driven by

animation activities celebration and family fun time
 Spends more time in the Prefers attention and personal
restaurant and are not recognition
sensitive to time

Source: Odiara Kihima, (2014)

So why Domestic Tourism

3. Importance
Domestic tourism remains the leading form of tourism, representing an
important tool for regional economic growth and development because.
1. Domestic tourism is the main driving force of the Travel and Tourism
sector in major economies globally.
2. It can keep a destination going and cushions the effect of a crisis in a
region/country or during international tourism seasonality
3. Domestic tourism is a major driving factor of Kenya’s tourism and travel
sector, contributing more than half of its GDP.
4. In Kenya, domestic tourists’ bed-night occupancy accounts for more than
50% of the Bed Occupancy from 2015-2018.
5. The number of domestic tourists’ bed-nights has increased from
2,948,000 in 2014 to 4,559,000 in 2018
6. Domestic travel contributes to job creation. In Kenya hotels in the Coast
and Nairobi region receive a high number of guests during festive
seasons.
7. It helps reduce burn out. Everyone deserves a break, and because we all
cannot afford to travel out of the country, domestic travel presents a
great opportunity for change of scenery without ‘burning a hole’ in your
pocket
8. Improved quality of life: Enabling residents with growing disposable
income and leisure time to participate in productive and satisfying
experiences. As leisure time, disposable income and higher levels of
education increase, so does the need for a broader array of leisure
experiences
9. Domestic tourism is the key driver of the tourism sector globally,
accounting for 73% of total Travel & Tourism spending in 2017.

10. Improved infrastructure: gradually introducing domestic travel sector

organisation to the critical management requirements needed to compete
effectively in the international marketplace.
11. It makes up the vast majority of tourism flows and thus explains the
notion that domestic tourism has the ability to contribute to
poverty-alleviation because: -
(a) It is labour intensive and hence providing employment
opportunities through local production of tourism products
(b) Domestic tourism requires little or none foreign exchange to
develop
(c) Tourism is one of the top 3 contributors to economic development
in most of the world’s poorest nations (WTO 2013).
(d) Domestic travel patterns do not reflect the excessive seasonal
fluctuation of the international market’. Therefore, It is not as
vulnerable to fluctuations in numbers caused by seasonality
(e) It is not sensitive to problems arising from travel booking systems,
(f) It is not affected by international airline schedules, changing
international tastes, perceived security threats or world economic
recession
(g) Domestic tourism cushions international tourism in low seasons or
during periods of economic, health or security crisis hence keeping
tourism activities running, keeping their share of bed occupancy,
visit to national parks and game researves

12. Governments use domestic tourism as a tool to eliminate local

poverty, generate employment and economic growth, upgrade
infrastructure and alleviate pressure from overcrowding through, for
instance, discretionary pricing policies and the provision of non-wage
tourism benefits (Those offered to workers in addition to monetary
pay; e.g., access to health care, meal vouchers, pensions).
13. Domestic travel helps address seasonality within regions, while also
dispersing tourists to less visited rural areas, which tend to be
overlooked by foreign visitors.
14. Redistribution of wealth within the nation’s boundaries. This
redistribution can be targeted to encourage the transfer of currency and
other physical and human resources from relatively affluent portions f
the country to economically less prosperous regions, through
strategically focused domestic tourism, strategy.
15. Stimulating local/grassroot development: Spreading development
opportunities into developing regions through the use of local resources
(natural and human) suited to domestic tourism as opposed to
international markets.
16. China has been extremely successful in fostering domestic tourism,
outperforming all other countries in domestic spending growth thanks
to its growing middle-class and government’s support. China is now
the leading domestic tourism market, up from 4th position in 2008,
having accounted for 62% of absolute growth in this period.
17. While China leads in absolute domestic spending growth, many
developing countries have shown significant growth in Travel &
Tourism domestic spending, as residents with rising disposable
income begin to explore their countries
18. Domestic tourism is easy because of existence of a common language,
currency and absence of documentation barriers required for foreign
travel.

Drivers of domestic tourism

Several factors drive domestic tourism. Some of these factors include:

a) Middle-class - Strong domestic tourism in most countries is driven by

a growing or sizeable middle-class population
b) An increase in spending power among domestic consumers
c) The sheer size of the country
d) Governments’ initiatives in promoting new locations and
 e) Strong or improving transportation infrastructure and economic links
between different internal regions. For instance, China has built an
average of eight new airports every year since 2013, and rapidly
developed its high-speed rail network over the last 15 years which has
opened-up previously remote places to domestic tourists.

Contribution of Domestic Tourism to Economic Development

- Domestic tourists can contribute significantly to local economic

development because they typically purchase more locally produced
goods and services than other categories of tourists, thus supporting
small-scale enterprises and the informal sector
- Local people who participate in domestic tourism benefit due to
‘comparatively low entry costs of supplying goods and services to the
domestic tourism market’
- Domestic tourism is a home-grown, self-reliant initiative that should
inspire local entrepreneurship’
- When local resources and skills are used to provide facilities for
tourists, there can be important multiplier effects
- Domestic tourism is a good redistributor of national income or wealth
- Tourism monies are spread more widely in a geographical sense by
domestic tourists, especially when the purpose of their travel is
visiting friends and family

Social contributions

I. Domestic tourism has the ability to promote national unity and

integration – Domestic travel can raise people’s appreciation of
different cultural, linguistic and religious groups and of common
interests of the people of a country, thus helping to foster national
integration.
II. It brings a stronger sense of belonging – Appreciating the countries
tourism resources.
III. When domestic tourism begins to grow in the country, people are seen
to develop a greater belief in it and hence gain a sense of national
pride.
IV. Domestic tourism is often more concerned with nation-building
(instead of looking for the ‘exotic’)

Table 1 Ways in which domestic tourism can contribute to development

Economic development Political, social and

 An emphasis on travel to visit
friends and relatives or for
social occasions and religious
rituals brings economic benefits
to areas not frequented by other
tourists.
 Domestic tourists often
contribute goods and provide
financial assistance to their
families in their home area
hence strengthening family
welfare.
 Many domestic tourists do not
demand luxury therefore will
spend more on locally produced
goods (for example, food) and
services (for example, transport,
home-stay accommodation).
 Economic benefits can be
spread widely within
communities as even
individuals with little capital or
training can provide desired
environmental development
 Raises appreciation of different
cultural, linguistic and religious
groups and of common interests
of the people of a country, thus it
can help to foster national
integration.
 Government support for domestic
tourism indicates rejection of
colonial mentality whereby the
interests of foreigners were
prioritized.
 Provides opportunities for
sharing of knowledge and skills
between people from ‘outside’
and those remaining in their
home community. Revitalizes
social and cultural ties between
extended family and community
groups.
 Enterprises catering for
domestic tourists are often small
and thus ownership and control
can be retained locally.
 services or products.  Local servicing of the tourism
 Formal qualifications are not market challenges foreign
needed to run small enterprises; domination of tourism
skills can be learned on the job. enterprises
 Significant multiplier effects
from drawing on local skills and
resource
 Basic infrastructure is required  Domestic tourists travelling on a
therefore ensuring low overhead budget use fewer resources (for
costs and minimizing the need example, cold showers and fans
for imported goods (for example, rather than hot baths and air
bamboo and thatch can be used conditioning;
to create a beach stall).  less air travel) and therefore are
 Not as fickle as foreign tourists, kinder to the environment
for instance, tourism demand
less likely to be diminished by
threats of political instability or
health scares.
 Less subject to seasonality than
foreign tourists

Factors that influence domestic tourism

(i) The growth of an urban industrial workforce and introduction of

associated labour rights legislation concerning annual vacations

(ii) General growth in people’s incomes. In particular, there has been

significant growth in the numbers of middle-income earners in
third World countries, many of whom are keen to pursue more
leisure opportunities. An exalted middle class with reasonable
affluence and disposable income and a strong desire for travel has
emerged in all countries
 (iii) Local entrepreneurs may not require sophisticated infrastructure
to cater for domestic tourism market -

Ways of encouraging people to participate in domestic tourism

Development of a domestic tourism industry offers the opportunity to

generate a more diverse and economically sustainable tourism industry.
However, for domestic tourism to be developed, people need to participate.
The following are some ways through which local people can be encouraged
to participate: -

(i) Government, Companies and Institutions Introducing a subsidized

holiday scheme for its employees
(ii) Introduction of Leave Travel concession – These are infrastructures
consisting of moderately priced accommodation, catering services
and tourist packages
(iii) Hotels offering special rates to domestic tourists to encourage year-
round tradition
(iv) Local tour operators and local travel agencies to give vocational
packages to destinations, subsidized prices for travel
(v) Subsidized park fees for locals
(vi) People from poorer communities who do not have skills, networks
or resources to cater for higher end tourists can often effectively
provide goods and services to lower end tourists, and they can do
this by utilizing local resources rather than needing outside
capital.
(vii) Promote local attractions
 4. Positive contributions of domestic tourism to
sustainable tourism development

There are several positive contributions that portray Domestic tourism as a

vital dimension upon which to attain sustainable tourism development.
These include destination exposition, destination appreciation and
economic development.

4.1. Destination exposition

Well-travelled local people expose destinations visited to other tourism

stakeholders such as inbound tourists, potential investors and government
departments.

Knowledgeable local people have a habit of taking new people who visit an
area to local attractions they are familiar with. For example, David
Livingstone was shown Mosi-oa-Tunya by knowledgeable local people. He
later wrote about it and renamed it Victoria Falls.

Domestic tourists expose destinations in the following ways: -

(a) Domestic tourists are tourism ambassadors

Local people who travel outside their country become default tourism
ambassadors when called upon to talk about tourism in their country to
people they meet outside their usual area of residence.

Local people leave the country temporarily or permanently. As temporary

traveller, local people need to know their country better

(b) Domestic tourists are role models

Domestic tourists also assume the position of role models and ones to set
the pace for inbound tourists by first visiting local attractions and
destinations. This creates curiosity among potential tourists from other
areas who would also want to visit these attractions and destinations.
(c) Domestic tourists are tour guides

 Through domestic tourism, local people assume tour guiding roles.

 Knowledgeable local people lead inbound tourists around showing
them local attractions every time they receive visitors not familiar with
the local attractions.
 The provision of tour guiding services by local people reinforces
information sharing through social exchange.
 This gives a positive image of the conduct of local people which
inbound tourists would take back home, share with friends and
relatives widening the base for future tourism to the destination.

4.2. Destination appreciation

 Attraction and destination attractiveness are built by the people who
see value in the attraction and destination, retain the value and sell it
so that others would also appreciate them.
 Destination appreciation is exhibited through local people being active
participants in tourism, their degree of tolerance, conduct of
stakeholders at destinations, sense of ownership, management style
and the development of tourists.

(a) Active participation

 Well-travelled local people help form a stakeholder inclusive tourism
industry that guarantees customer satisfaction preparing ground for
future tourists to the destination in tandem with the stakeholder
theory.
 Informed local people have become more welcoming to the tourists as
they appreciate them more through active participation in tourism as
tourists. Local people see more value in hosting tourists in their
communities.
 They see value in sharing information, ideas and experiences.
  They know what kind of stories to share with tourists and where to
take them.
 They even have an appreciation of the different tourists’ expectations
hence they are better prepared to handle them.

(b) Tolerance
 During domestic tourism tours, people go to new places they are not
familiar with where they interact with people whose way of life they do
not know.
 They make friends with some even getting married. The development
of long-term relationships during the interaction from being pure
strangers to general friends into marriage partners reduces
uncertainties which is sometimes associated with tourism.
 This increases the tourists’ confidence to engage with the hosts fully
aware that they have some common ground upon which to build
better relationships.

(c) Tourists conduct

 Host communities are able to distinguish the attractions that appeal

to international tourists compared to those that appeal to domestic
tourists through their conduct.
 Foreigners are believed to have more respect and place more value on
local attractions because they have more curiosity as compared to
domestic tourists.
 Domestic tourists seem to be excited when exposed to new attractions
they are not familiar with in their everyday life.
 Some families in big cities are only exposed to urban settings without
any exposure to the life outside towns, hence they have greater desire
to explore the countryside

(c) Ownership of attractions and destinations

 Tourists consult local traditional leadership before getting access to
local cultures and traditions.
 The traditional leadership is perceived as the owners and custodians
of local culture and values.
 Domestic tourists feel that tourism is part of their heritage.

4.3. Attraction authenticity

 Attraction authenticity is when an attraction remains consistent over
time offering same benefits in the same manner as originally
presented.
 Kenya is a sustainable tourism destination for it has maintained its
long-time known attractions such as its culture, flora and fauna,
landscapes (the rift valley, escarpments), wild animals still found in
the wilderness (Maasai Mara National Reserve, Lake Nakuru National
Park, Tsavo National park etc,

4.4. Economic development

 Domestic tourism is a key driver of local economic development
in destination regions.
 The economic benefits of domestic tourism are felt everywhere
where people visit and congregate for some time.
 Economic benefits cut across informal and formal domestic
tourism with some being direct whilst others are indirect.
 Local economy is sustained by combined investment and
expenditure of local and incoming visitors.
 Domestic tourists use money to buy tourism goods and services
like artefacts to take back home from vendors, sleep in hotels,
eat in restaurants and undertake activities. Profits generated
benefit the local community

5. Domestic Tourism Development

Tourism product consists of attractions and tourism industry.
 Tourist attractions are an essential element of the tourism product that
may or may not be part of the actual tourism industry, depending on
their level of commercialization. In either case, non-VFR or business
attractions can be categorised into natural sites, natural events, cultural
sites and cultural events, recognizing that the distinctions between these
categories are often blurred. The potentiality of an attraction increases
its potential market draw. However, destinations are limited in the
extent to which they can influence their attraction account. Whatever a
destination’s inventory of attractions, it is important to assess and
monitor their critical attributes in order to make informed planning and
management decisions that will maximize the positive impacts of
tourism. These attributes include ownership structure, spatial
configuration, level of authenticity, scarcity, carrying capacity,
accessibility market. Some variables such as carrying capacity and
image, may be difficult to measure and monitor, while others may be
difficult to change.

5.1. Monitoring and evaluation of Domestic Tourism

 There is a clear and strong rationale for tourism evaluation. Good quality
evaluation yields valuable evidence in a form that is credible and
convincing. It can be conducted in various forms and at various levels as
part of policy development and assessment processes
 Evaluation has a critical role in measuring the effectiveness and
efficiency of public expenditure
 Tourism must provide clear and timely evidence to demonstrate the
extent of its contribution to the national economy if it is to continue to
attract government investment and retain prioritisation of support as a
significant sector.
 Tourism evaluation is the most appropriate means of demonstrating the
industry’s value to an economy and should be considered as equally
important as having a tourism strategy itself. Well-prepared and executed
 monitoring and evaluation can be enormously influential where the
evidence is clear and tangible with measurable outcomes and impacts
that can be attributed to policy initiatives.
 Evaluation has a vital role to play in providing policy makers with the
evidence required to ensure that future policies target the greatest areas
of return in terms of meeting strategic objectives.

(a) Five key reasons to evaluate domestic tourism development

1. to help policy makers better assess the impacts of their tourism

policies and programmes against their objectives, to learn from past
successes and failures and to inform decision makers;
2. to allow a better cross-government understanding of the efficiency of
the “whole-of government” approach in tourism at national, regional
and local levels;
3. to provide evidence of return on investment in tourism, cost
effectiveness across a portfolio of policies and programmes;
4. to stimulate debate among tourism stakeholders (entrepreneurs,
residents, tourists, investors, local authorities, etc.);
5. to improve the design and implementation of programmes, how they
should adapt to changing conditions and what could be done better in
the future.

(b) Evaluation can assist in many ways including:

1. informing the preparation of strategies, policies and refining action
plans;
2. augmenting performance management, analysing the effects of
expenditure and investment by government, partner organisations
and the private sector;
3. providing robust and convincing evidence of effects in quantitative and
qualitative terms;
 4. allowing organisations to measure comparative performance and
benchmark with others;
5. providing evidence to support lobbying for additional investment from
other related sectors and policy areas, including transportation, skills,
infrastructure, marketing and the environment; and
6. demonstrating impact, returns on investment and value for money

(c) Monitoring and evaluation frameworks

Monitoring and evaluation frameworks provide policy makers at local,
regional and national level with the necessary information to see if the
forecast change is taking place. It should also bring forward evidence of
what in particular is causing that change and how (the attribution of effect
to interventions), and the extent of the change that is a result of policy (the
additionality)

A monitoring and evaluation framework is a simple structure to set out the

sequence of steps in a logical and linear approach to gather and record
information on:
 the stated objectives of the policy;
 a baseline position that records the conditions at that point;
 the inputs made into policy delivery, which can be financial and
human resources;
 the activities involved in policy delivery; and
 the resulting outputs.

(d) Requirements for effective evaluation

 Good evaluation requires management initiative (and often political
commitment) and intensive monitoring. The thoroughness of an
evaluation should depend upon the scale of the impact of a policy,
programme or project, and to some extent on the level of public
interest. There may be a high level of interest around a policy which
has required a significant degree of expenditure, or one which is
 highly complex, novel, or represents a pilot for future large-scale
initiatives.
 The policy activity to be evaluated needs to be clearly specified and
interplay between related policy areas should be in-built to the
evaluation approach and methodology.
 The logical flow from objectives, to outputs and outcomes should be
profiled and quantified as precisely as possible from the beginning (ex-
ante stage) and tracked through monitoring and evaluation.
 It is important to distinguish between the objectives and outcomes at
policy level and the outputs and targets at programme level.
 It is important to review the availability of output and performance
measures and targets alongside other monitoring data, and how they
relate to the objectives. If this information is inadequate, consideration
should be given to the collection of additional data and qualitative
information.
 It is important to take a suitable benchmark for comparison and also
to establish a base case scenario or counterfactual (what would have
happened if the activity under consideration had not been
implemented).

When a tourism professional is considering an evaluation of a programme,

certain basic questions require to be asked and checked with an evaluation
specialist. They include: -

(e) Evaluation brief checklist

1. Are the goals and objectives of the programme clearly stated?
2. Are there performance measures for the programme and are they in line
with the objectives?
3. Is there an intervention logic that shows links to delivery of the strategy?
4. Are these links clear and do they make sense operationally?
5. Are there a sufficient number of valid indicators to allow assessment?
6. Are there targets that can be legitimately linked with implementation?
7. Do we know what success looks like and can we use measures to show
it?
8. Can we attribute change effects and contributions to success with the
interventions of the programme?
9. Can we identify which elements of the programme are delivering which
results?

An evaluation framework can set these questions in a context to deliver

successful evaluation. In all situations, good evaluation requires that three
conditions are satisfied at the outset in establishing the context for applying
an evaluation and monitoring framework. These conditions are; -
 Interventions, and the target population, should be clearly identifiable;
 Outcomes should be clear, specific and measurable; and
 An appropriate evaluation design should be straightforward to
implement.

6. Problems facing Domestic Tourism

The major problems facing domestic tourism include

 Lack of participation in domestic tourism by locals
 Low levels of income among the local people,
 Limited knowledge on various options available
 Lack of awareness,
 Inaccessible tourism products
 High prices of tourist products,
 Lack of promotion,
 General economic instability and
 Lack of information on the local market

Table 1: Summary of Problems faced by Domestic Tourism Development

No prior planning for holidays Lack of saving culture amongst

Kenyans
 Absence of longer holidays for Economic hardship
workers

High cost of services Lack of disposable income

No extensive and well-developed Cultural factors, notably not being

marketing strategy used to going on holiday

Perception that tourism is Inaccessible tourism product

expensive

Over focus on international Lack of information concerning

markets by hotels and tour attractions and accommodation
operators
Source: Odiara (2015)

There is therefore a need to develop a participative and integrated domestic

tourism strategy to enable the industry to tap into this potential market in a
sustainable and competitive manner.