Comparative analysis of the evolution of tourism strategies in Kenya and South Afri

MAN2101 – Tourism Policy and Development

Jade Chaplin 6649274

Xi (Amy), Ngo 6644750

Word Count – 5048

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Authors Note

The referencing official tourism policies will be abbreviated as follow

(South Africa’s Department of Tourism, 2011) – (SADOT, 2011)

(South Africa’s Department of Tourism, 2017) – (SADOT, 2017)

(Kenya Strategic Plan, 2008) – (KSP, 2008)

(Kenya National Tourism Strategy, 2013) – (KNTS, 2013)

(Kenya National Tourism Blueprint 2030, 2017) – (KNTB, 2017)

(Kenya Strategic Plan, 2020) – (KSP, 2020)

(Kenya Revised National Tourism Policy, 2020) – (KRNTP, 2020)

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Executive Summery

South Africa and Kenya can both develop their tourism industries through mutual learning and
examination of each other’s policies. Our study covers the entirety of both policies histories and
their development throughout iterations. The governments follow the same themes but have
different takes on execution. South Africa focuses on developing itself as a tourist destination
and the customer satisfaction through the training of its staff while Kenya wants to diversify its
tourism offerings and develop its citizens and communities to help reduce poverty levels rather
than in the instance of tourism. Recommendations include risk assessments and policies to
reduce seasonality.
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Table of Contents

Executive Summery.............................................................................................................3

Introduction..........................................................................................................................5

Relationship between policy, planning & development......................................................5

History & development of tourism policies.........................................................................6

South Africa.....................................................................................................................6

Kenya...............................................................................................................................7

Economic development.......................................................................................................7

Main objectives of policies..................................................................................................8

Information Gathering.........................................................................................................9

Innovation & Technology....................................................................................................9

Marketing...........................................................................................................................10

Education & Employment.................................................................................................11

Rural Development & Tourism..........................................................................................12

Travel Facilitation: Airports, Roads, Visa..........................................................................12

Product Variation (Quality assurance)...............................................................................13

Equality and Diversity.......................................................................................................15

Sustainability.....................................................................................................................16

Recommendations..............................................................................................................17

Conclusion.........................................................................................................................18
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References..........................................................................................................................19

Introduction
The tourism industry, (which encompasses several sectors such as transportation,
accommodation, retail and entertainment) has been an important industry and a critical factor in
many countries’ economic development strategies (Manhas, Manrai & Manrai, 2016). Tourism in
underdeveloped countries provides highly desired economic contributions to residents in rural
and remote locations that lack the expertise and financial means to participate in tourism
development without outside assistance (Yanes et al, 2019). Therefore, it is so vital for
developing countries like Kenya and South Africa (SA) to have policies and strategies in place to
guide its tourism development and reap the benefits. Both countries are already heavily reliant on
tourism with almost 10% of Kenya’s and SA GPD being a result of indirect, direct, or induced
tourism and having and cultivating new additions to keep up with trends are of paramount
importance.

Many Governmental policymakers simply repeat a common policy making formula on a mutual
belief that it will provide an answer, but without comparing or searching its own layout which
limits the answer in addition to sometimes being applied wrong (Ritcher, 1998, pg 22).
Therefore, it is vital that governments compare their own polices and strategies with others to
highlight their own weaknesses and take practical applications from others. This discussion will
be formatted with an explanation of what a policy is at the start, followed by the evolution of
both strategies over time, analysis of both strengths and weaknesses and concluded with
recommendations.

Relationship between policy, planning & development

"Tourism policy" refers to a set of discourses, decisions, and practices devised by governments,
sometimes with the help of private stakeholders, with the intention of achieving various tourism
objectives (Velasco, 2016). Other policy definitions are stated as the following: “Generally
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[public] policy can be defined as a set of interrelated decisions (or non-decisions) and actions (or
inactions) formulated and implemented by government and public authorities to deal with public
problems, concerns and opportunities” (Airey & Chong, 2011, p42).
Tourism planning refers to the overall process of deploying the policy objectives and the
implementation of a course of action. It functions as a framework, and thus must be imperative,
strategic, innovative, and flexible. (Zhang & Lin, 2017)

As such, policy is a set of government guideline and rules and regulations for the sector in which
the planning process must take into consideration when deciding the course of action that will
manage the development of tourism. Tourism policy and planning are interdependent as effective
planning cannot occur without a set policy while a policy is rendered ineffectual if no planning
occurs to implement strategies to achieve its objectives.

History & development of tourism policies

Kenya and SA have both had updated iterations of their tourism strategies and both
progression charts below show the development of Kenya’s and SA overtime.
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South Africa

The 2009 ANC election manifesto idenified tourism as a major economic sector for SA and the
2009 economic and rural development benefits stategic plan could manifest
ANC
Manifes
tio

First tourism policy was published in 2011 as a 10- year framework based on the 2009 baseline.
The NTSS was complied through a panel of 32 experts from major public and private stakeholder
groups for tourism industry.
2011 The original policy had 3 main themes priorities into 4 clusters of priority
NTSS

A revision was made and published in 2017 to determine adjustments based on the changing domestic,
international environment and the emergence of important trends
This strategy is for 2016 - 2026 and has 5 stagic pillars that are ordered by importance
2017
NTSS

(SADOT, 2011; SADOT, 2017)

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Kenya

A development blueprint for the period 2008 - 2030 which identifies the Kenyan tourism sector as a major employer
that contributes to about 10% of the Gross Domestic Product.
Kenya
Vision The sector is determined as one of the six priority growth sectors in Vision 2030's economic pillar. The blueprint is then
2030
to be implemented through 5-year medium term plans with the first being the 2008 - 2012 strategic plan
(Publis
hed
2008)

Identifies major objectives to be implemented and provides the strategies, action plans and the evaluation
2008 -
and monitoring indicators.
2012 The budget requirements and potential sources of funds required to implement the strategies.
Strategi
c Plan

2013 - Provides an in-depth analysis of the status and outlook of Kenya’s tourism, and a swot analysis outlines the
2018 challenges present in the sector.
Nationa
l Broad objectives are established wherein the strategy intends to achieve.
Touris
m
Strateg
y

Kenya
Nationa Developed to propel the growth of the tourism sector through new innovative strategies.
l
Touris
Set policies in place that guide the sector on a macro level across all stakeholders.
m
Bluepri
nt 2030
(Publis
hed
2017)
Developed with the changing dynamics of the sector considered.
2018 -
2022 Other than situational and swot analysis, the plan also entailed a review of the 2013 - 2017 strategic plan.
Strategi Strategic Objectives are mainly focused on improving and enhancing current policies and offerings.
c Plan,
revised
2020

(KSP, 2008; KNTS, 2013; KNTB, 2017; KSP, 2020; KRNTP, 2020)

Economic development

Tourism is treated as an economic activity with the ability to drive global economic growth
because of its overlapping with other economic activities, job creation, Gross Domestic product
contributions and foreign exchange generation, (Cárdenas-García, Sánchez-Rivero & Pulido-
Fernández, 2013). In many undeveloped nations, tourism is one of the limited alternative export
sectors to increase foreign exchange earnings (Jenkins, 2015). That’s why it is vital that countries
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focus on their economic development. Economic development can be broken down into many
subsections and instead of giving it its own analysis. It will be mentioned throughout other
subsections.
This table identifies the desired outcomes of both countries' most recent policies. The
table is not in order of importance.
Information gathering
Innovation and technology
Marketing
Education and Employment
Rural Development &
Tourism
Travel Facilitation
Product Variation
Equality and Diversity
Sustainability
Main objectives of policies
Kenya
N/A
Utilize technological
advancements to develop its
tourism operations
Subsection all the different
tourism facilities that can be
offered and the products
deemed ready will be
marketed.
Enhance citizens careers and
help reduce poverty levels
Promote community-based
tourism
Development of transport
infrastructure to increase
capacity
Research and development of
new tourism products to
target new source markets
Encourage women and youth
empowerment and
participation in tourism
activities.
A focus on conserving and
managing wildlife and natural aspect.
resources
South Africa
Create a national research
framework to gather data on
its tourism operations
Minimize the negative effects
of the sharing economy
Market the whole of SA to
predetermined priority source
markets
As a tool to provide tourists
with excellent customer
service and inspire
revisitation
Develop its rural products so
communities can experience
the benefits from tourism.
Facilitating ease of travel
through air service
agreements and visa
relaxation
Development of rural tourism
and effective marketing of
existing products
Focuses on providing
opportunities for black and
local communities
A focus on the socio-cultural
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Information Gathering

The first national tourism sector strategy (NTSS) was organized by strategic clusters and
were ordered by prioritization of importance as addressed in the ANC manifesto which resulted
in the paramount need to have a national research framework to baseline tourism-related
research. (SADOT, 2011, p20). The lack of a formal database of SA tourism statistics meant
there was no clear understanding of the industry’s basic performance, capacity, or demand levels.
The NTSS states the ‘decisions making in government is often based on inaccurate baseline
information’ (SADOT, p20) with all four clusters and action plan given in the first NTSS based
on what they think they need to improve rather than having strategical evidence to understand
the industry and create an action plan based on that. This is also evident in the 2017 iteration of
the NTSS as the review against NTSS 2011 targets indicated a high overestimation or
underestimation of performance (SADOT, 2017, pp11-15).

Innovation & Technology

A review of emerging trends is one of the reasons behind the cultivation of the second
iteration of NTSS in South Africa, with the updated technological environment being mentioned
second. The main difference is both counties view technological environment with Kenya as
positive and SA as negative. Kenya welcomes the paradigm shift to Technologically Influenced
Travel with universal ease of access to information and the ability for travelers to plan and book
a holiday online. Kenya understands that digital marketing aids in reaching a larger international
audience and must be researched to remain competitive in comparison with SA who views
technological environment as unfair competition and detrimental to sustainable growth and
competitiveness of the industry (SADOT, 2017, p2). SA mentions the phenomenon of the sharing
economy and wants to develop a policy position with practical interventions to restrict the
development. Heo (2016, p176) defines the sharing economy as ‘an economic system in which
assets or services shared between private individuals, either for free or for a fee, typically by
means of the Internet’ and South Africa prioritizes ‘loss of tax revenue for the government’
(SADOT, 2017, p2) higher than benefiting the local community. Sharing economy companies
like Airbnb can significantly develop a destination. For example, a study conducted in 2012
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estimated that Airbnb $56 million in local spending with $12.7 million directly going to Local
household communities in San Francisco (Airbnb, n.d).
SA mentions a want for a policy position with practical interventions so that the industry
remains competitive but does not mention technology at all during the action plan. In Kenya
action plan, social media marketing is prioritized as essential same with app tourism information
offices (KNTB, 2017, p187). Digital marketing not only reaches further but also enables
businesses to track user behavior in relation to its demographic, engagement, and conversion
(Kaur, 2017, p73)

Marketing
South Africa has a stronger prioritization of effective marketing, but Kenya has a
considerably more comprehensive STP marketing strategy. In both iterations of SA marketing
strategies, Marketing was top two (cluster 2 2011 & pillar 1 2020) with the overall objective to
market the entire destination to only priority source markets. Kenya however follows a ‘Sales not
marketing approach’ as the primary objective for a tourism strategic plan is to increase the total
amount of spending and visitor numbers (KNTB, 2017, p148). Kenya uses STP marketing and
has separated their tourism products into 14 different sub-sections and as of the 2017 policy only
have 3 that they believe are ready to be marketed. STP stands for segmentation, targeting, and
positioning with the objective to categorize the mass market into groups, each with distinct needs
and desires (Camilleri, 2017) and Kenya categorized its tourism offering but also the types of
tourists that would visit each destination and how they would market Visiting Friends and Family
(VRF) different to leisure tourists. Kenya SWOT analysis highlights that a continued lack of
budgeting and marketing for tourism is a threat (KRNTP, 2020, p22) and would rather spend the
money on developing an areas infrastructure than marketing an ‘undesirable destination’. South
Africa uses Target marketing with the identification of the most profitable market segments
(Camilleri, 2018) which SA believe will generate the most international spending. SA only
estimates the most profitable markets as first objective in action plan to improve prioritization.

In the aspect of domestic tourism, SA claims that effective domestic marketing will
involve a greater access of resources and compared to Kenya who understand its poverty levels
and focus on bringing foreign money into the economy.
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Education & Employment

Education is a conscious and objective effort for developing human resources to be a better
person (Malihah, Puspito & Setiyorini, 2014) however SA focuses on the need for education as
tool to improve customer satisfaction and experience (SADOT, 2017, p26). Pillar 3’s focus is
visitor experience and is the only time education and employment is mentioned with the
motivation to develop excellent tourism skills and service levels to cater for tourists which yield
positive quality experience, customer satisfaction and inspire revisitation. SA policy has the
motivation to achieve customer satisfaction over creating career opportunities for its locals even
when nearly 10% of total SA employment was directly or indirectly related to tourism with 702
824 direct jobs and 1.5 million indirect jobs (SADOT, 2011, p12) relating to this 10%, SA lists
negative perceptions of pursuing a career in tourism without an action plan on how to fix these
perceptions for its citizens (SADOT, 2017, p27). These negative perceptions are:
 Poor working conditions with low wages
 Lack of career mobility
 Lack of appreciation
 Low skill levels among tourism workers & poor quality of trained tourism
officials
 Lack of understanding of the nature of work in the tourism industry.

If there is an understanding of the negative perceptions, SA should find it necessary to address

these issues and increase the tourism sector's desirability. Negative perceptions are just as
harmful as actual harm and SA should spend less time identifying the negatives and instead work
on an action plan to address these.

Kenya however mentions the education of its citizens as an enhancement of themselves rather
than as a tool to offer services to tourists Kenya’s poverty rate was 49.4% in 2014 (living on
$5.50 dollars a day (worldbank, n.d) and the progression and integration of its citizens into
higher paying jobs will result in businesses not needing to seek managers with a certain level of
education from abroad. Kenya Utalii College is a government-owned hospitality and tourism
training institution, established in 1975, and offers bachelors, diplomas and certificates in
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tourism and hospitality (Go visit Kenya, n.d). A singular government owned university is not
enough to help with the development of its citizens, but it is a start that can be improved with
time compared to SA.
Rural Development & Tourism

A difference between both countries is the distribution of the total population in rural areas.
Between 2010- 2020, 32-37% of SA population lived in rural areas compared to 72-76% for
Kenya (World Bank, n.d; World Bank, n.d). Kenya understood that during their SWOT analysis,
there was limited community beneficiation from tourism with the (KRNTP, 2020, pg22) and the
last pillar in SA document has the outcome to empower, marginalized enterprises and rural
communities to ensure exclusive growth and interlacing the economic benefits of tourism for a
reduction of inequality and poverty (SADOT, 2017, p36). Kenya has the same objective with
community beneficiation however their objective is to encourage participation rather than
development (KRNTP, 2020, p17). In Kenya’s SWOT analysis, an identified weakness is limited
community participation (KRNTP, 2020, p22) and their action plan to solve offering existing
products to customers. The phrase ‘rural development’ is not mentioned once in the entire
strategy however ‘promote community based, tourism is mentioned 14 times in different strategy
action plans throughout the document but with no elaboration on how they are planning to
achieve this outcome. The only elaboration given is to promote community-based tourism and
offer already existing products like sports fields to tourists. This is completely different from SA
as their intention is to develop communities with investments to make rural destinations more
attractive and diversify the tourists into communities. In addition to aiding with convergence
between the rural and urban areas.

Travel Facilitation: Airports, Roads, Visa

SA and Kenya’s policy recognizes that ease of travel to and within a destination effects its
competitiveness. Both policies have developed their focus strategy on facilitating seamless travel
to attract more tourists through air service agreements, domestic air connectivity and local
transport facilitation. In relation to the tourism system, the transit route is an essential element to
bring tourists from the generating region to and from the destination. Industrial elements such as
transport and transit route infrastructure are related to psychological elements such as decisions
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to purchase and travel to destination (Hall, 2008). Development of visa policies and procedures
are significant in influencing international tourism and impacts the development of tourism
wherein making the country easy to visit increases their competitiveness. (Tourism visa openness
report: Visa facilitation as means to stimulate tourism growth, 2013)

SA has prioritized the ease of entry for International Travelers through Visa regulations and
refining the aviation sector (SADOT, 2017, pg23). while Kenya focuses on improving Airport
Infrastructure at key airports to combat the capacity constraints. This is because Kenya’s main
airport, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was built to serve about 2.5 million passengers per
year (African Development Bank Group, 2015) while SA’s O. R. Tambo International Airport
has the capacity to facilitate 28 million passengers per year (SA News, 2015). With the airport
facilities in place, SA is now able to focus on air service agreements and visa friendly regimes
for priority markets to encourage more tourist arrivals while Kenya is in an earlier development
stage.

SA’s road network consist of 750,000km in 2016 while Kenya has a road network of about
177,800km with about 18,900km requiring rehabilitation in 2017 (CIA.Gov, n.d) The quality of
roads as published for the Global competitiveness reports shows that SA has a score of 5 while
Kenya scored a lower 4.2 (World Economic Forum, 2016). This supports Kenya’s policy on
improving road connectivity and infrastructure (KNTB, 2017, pg 93) while SA has advanced to
improving their private and public transport systems in place (SADOT, 2017, pg 30).

Product Variation (Quality assurance)

Tourism destinations are currently facing increased competitiveness in the global tourism market.
The traditional all-inclusive flights-and-accommodation package holiday are being replaced by
dynamic packages as travelers use the budget airline and the internet to plan their own holidays
and want unique experiences rather than sea-sand and sun holidays (Independent, 2015). This
pressures destinations to be innovative and diversify their product offerings to keep up with
trends and attract more visitors (Ćulić et al., 2021). By diverse tourism activities and
experiences, there is more potential for customized products for tourists’ niche interests and
enhanced flexibility to changing demands and tastes (Benur & Bramwell, 2015).
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Product variation and development are one of Kenya’s focus strategies with it being the product
strategy that took up 30 pages in the tourism blueprint but was only mentioned briefly within SA
policy. Kenya has identified their core experiences that drive tourism and accessed their product
market readiness to then form the priorities in their strategic approach (KNTB, 2017, pg 31 - 35).
Kenya’s main priority is to improve tourism product diversification by creating new products to
attract new tourist market segments such as developing new facilities to encourage business
tourism (KNTB, 2017, pg62) and conducting research to implement niche tourism products –
Health and wellness, Agri-tourism, and medical tourism. Kenya has also identified the over-
reliance on international travel which are highly seasonal (KNTB, 2017, pg 23). Seasonality
occurs for three valid reasons: natural, demand and supply factors (Font, Lucas & Cloarec, 2021)
Kenya is increasing its supply of activities to reduce dependency on one market segment and
increase sources of demand. Although seasonality issues were addressed, another problem
involving all-inclusive tourism was not addressed in the policy. 87% of Kenya’s tourists spend
their holiday in an all-inclusive resort, however, these all-inclusive establishments contributed
the least to Kenya’s economy (Wielenga & Postma, 2015). The focus in the policy for the
benefits of product variation should not only be marketing the destination’s desirability but also
creating opportunities to benefit local communities and alleviate the country’s dependency on
all-inclusive packages. Kenya ranks in the bottom per cent of all countries based on yearly
minimum wage rate (Kenya Minimum Wage - World Minimum Wage Rates 2022, 2022). The
government can do more to legally raise minimum wage to reduce the exploitation of the locals.
SA’s 2011 policy mentions niche product development with an element of rural tourism in a bid
to expand product offerings to ensure competitiveness but subsequently in 2017, an emphasis is
placed on developing rural tourism and community benefits without mention of strategies to
promote niche tourism products.

SA is known to have a more diverse product offering wherein cultural, niche activities and wine
tourism are in place other than the primary product of wildlife tourism and beaches (Mallinson,
n.d.). Their policy is in the right direction to focus on strategies to effectively market their
diverse offerings instead of further product development. Meanwhile, there is certainly a need for
Kenya to develop strategies and infrastructure for different tourism products as they are known
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to offer undifferentiated tourism services and products based on wildlife and beach tourism
(Akama & Ondimu, 2001).

Equality and Diversity

Equality and diversity are essential components in maintaining sustainable tourism. They are one
of the foundations that most of the tourism sustainable development goals are based on, with
direct goals such as gender equality which aims to empower women through opportunities within
tourism and reduced inequalities which aims to develop tourism as a tool for community
development and local involvement (Tourism in the 2030 Agenda; UNWTO, n.d.).

SA’s policy under the pillar of broad-based benefits focuses mainly on equality and diversity
based on black and local community (SADOT, 2017). The focus is on providing opportunities
for inclusive participation of the black community – especially women and young entrepreneurs.
However, inclusion of the objective may be solely due to the obligations of the targets set in the
Amended Tourism BB-BEE Sector Code wherein their objective is to address the 2 main tourism
sector challenge – the need to become more globally competitive and the need to include black
people in the tourism sector (Republic of South Africa Department of Tourism, 2015). This
Sector code was published in the same 2009 manifesto that the first NTSS came from and
mentions the obligations of diversity than the importance to be fair.

There are no specific policy targeting women and youth’s development and opportunities in
tourism. This potentially disregards the community as there are no supervision in actively
implementing strategies that upholds equality and diversity in the sector.

SA’s focus on the black community may be due to the inequality that resulted from the apartheid
laws (Apartheid, 2010) Statistics shown that white South Africans earn nearly three time the
average wage of black South Africans despite the latter making up three quarters of the work
force (Scott, 2019).
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In contrast, the only mentions of equality and diversity in Kenya’s policy are centred on women
and youth empowerment. Kenya’s population, although diverse in ethnic groups, are mostly
indigenous black people (East Africa Living Encyclopaedia, n.d.) therefore, the only inequality is
gender rather than race. Strategy mentions to increase awareness among the youth, women,
people with disabilities and communities on wildlife and tourism matters to enhance their
participation (2020, pg 26) yet it is not elaborated on how to increase awareness and no
measurement index is provided. Kenya ranks 109 out of 153 nations on the Global Gender Gap
index 2020 and has performed worse in categories such as economic participation opportunity as
compared to 2006. Women also get paid thirty-two percent less than men (Wainainah, 2020).
Kenya has identified the need to balance out this inequality yet has put any policies or strategies
in place to fix this issue.

Sustainability
Sustainability has been the focus of many countries’ policy development. UNWTO (n.d) states
that sustainable tourism is the holistic development of economic, environmental, and socio-
cultural aspects of tourism to ensure the sector is beneficial in the long-term. Effective policy,
planning and management of tourism activities are essential in ensuring sustainable tourism
activities as it sets in place sustainable management of destination resources whilst striving for
economic development (Farmaki, 2015).

Kenya and SA’s tourism products are heavily dependent on their natural resources. It is important
for their policy to ensure that these resources will not be depleted while aiming to grow their
economy. Kenya’s established vision in their plans through the years have mentioned developing
the destination as a leader in sustainable tourism (KSP, 2008, pg 3; KNTB, 2017, pg 3; KSP,
2020, pg 22). However, earlier policies did not follow through with their vision on developing
objectives and strategies that provide a framework on guiding sustainable tourism development.
Strategic objectives based on sustainable tourism and conservation of resources were only
detailed in the 2020 medium term plan. Key objectives include improving sustainability of
destination, investment in the sector for sustainable usage and development of resources and
enhance conservation and management of tourism and wildlife resources with detailed strategies
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outlining the intention to develop frameworks and standards to guide industry stakeholders
(Kenya Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, 2020, pg 23 - 26). Although the policy has been
enhanced over the years, the focus of the objectives is only on the environmental aspect. There is
a need for Kenya to further develop their policies to ensure growth in the socio-cultural and
economic aspects.

A sustainability negative Kenya has is the cruise tourism strategy for the east coast. Kenya first
policy mentions the desire to develop its cruising industry on the east coast and the 2020
reiteration proves they are starting to obtain this action plan by the develop its KPA cruise
terminal port in Mombasa that cost Sh1 billion and was funded by Kenya Ports Authority and
TradeMark East Africa (Mwangasha, 2021; Pg 14 2020). This is contradiction of SA’s main
objective to increase total visitor spending as seen in the multiplier effect and protect its beach
and wildlife safari resources which they claim remain ‘unique and unmatched by competing
destinations, (2020, p13). Cruising has grown significantly from 500,000 passengers in 1970 to
10.4 million in 2004 making it the growing vacation category in the United States and Canada
(Moscovici, 2017). However, the negative effects from tourism ocean pollution and water
quality, climate change, excessive use of natural resources, decrease in biodiversity and erosions
of coastlines (Han, Jae & Hwang, 2016). In addition, on average passengers spend 85% of the
total trip on the boat with only 15% docked at different harbors (Callais, 2019). The implications
of this are Kenya is capitating on a trend to increase the number of visitors in the area but at the
cost of not retention revenue from accommodations of increased number of days and at the
expense of the wildlife. SA mentions cruise tourism once with the action plan of a cruise tourism
impact study (SADOT, 2011, p44). SA didn’t mention cruising in the second iteration as research
indicates that the cruise industry is not an effective way to boost the tourism industry.

Recommendations
Other than the recommendation highlighted in the discussion above, a key
recommendation for both countries is to include a highly developed risk assessment and action
plan. This would have minimised the negative effects from the COVID-19 pandemic and
prevent/ minimise other in the future. There is a plethora of case studies that show the negative
 19

effect of epidemics and pandemics, yet both SA and Kenya failed to include a risk assessment in
place to minimize the negative consequences. The Ebola virus disease was first discovered in
1976 but resurfaced in 2014 to 2016 in West Africa as the largest Ebola outbreak in the virus’s
history. The outbreak started in Guinea and then moved across land borders to Sierra Leone and
Liberia. (World Health Organisation, 2021). Even though the outbreak was majority in west
Africa, the typical trend where a fatal incident in one country or region is typically associated
with the whole continent (Maphanga & Henama 2019). Both countries need to be aware that just
because they believe an incident will not happen in their home country. It may still occur and
negatively affect them. Both iterations of SA documents contain the identification of the negative
effects resulting from diseases, but no action plan and Kenya’s 2017 strategy does not mention
anything about diseases. The 2020 strategy mentions the solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic
but no other risk assessment for other complications (p 20). Kenya is only responding to current
issues rather than preventing future ones. Future issues that could be addressed are.
 Natural disasters and climate change
 Terrorism
 Recessions
 Political unrest
 Crime
 Intolerance of race or gender.
 Tighter Fiscal environment

Conclusion

An analysis of evolution of both Kenya and South Africa’s policies reveals both are subjective to
the same influences but responded in their own interpretations. Positives like technological
advancements in Kenya have been a negative in SA with the sharing economy as something that
needs to be controlled. Kenya focuses on the diversification of its products and individual
marketing while SA focuses on uses its resources to market its current products to priority source
markets. Both countries focus on diversity and sustainability as a must due to legislations rather
than a desire to look after its own citizens. Both make claims of desired outcomes like equality
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and diversity but fail to mention how so in the action plans. Recommendations on the
implementation of a risk assessment and policies to reduce seasonality.

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