It’s time to change our tourism’s narrative
What you need to know:
The main piece lacking in our tourist marketing is a coherent story to accompany the physical attractions.
It is time we put in conscious effort to storify our tourism, to explain why our country must remain central to the story of the human race.
It is time for us to tell the attractive story of a Kenya that is the cradle of humankind, a place with sufficient diversity to have been the source of all life on this planet.
Kenya’s tourism industry is perhaps the most consistently successful foreign exchange earner this country has had since independence.
Indeed, one can argue that apart from our natural resources and climate, our tourist attractions are one of the reasons Kenya was founded, colonised and continues to be a magnet for many in the world.
'GAWKABLES'
Kenya’s economy is among the best in the world for a country that is not dependent on oil and other minerals for economic stability.
Unfortunately, we have treated the tourism industry the same way we deal with important aspects of our lives- abysmally. Like most of the good things that happen in our national life, we have been content to let nature take its own course with little intervention. We have built our lives around tourist attractions, sometimes even interfering with and destroying them, and done very little to improve them or create new ones.
Our tourist offering remains largely the same for the past 50 years yet we continue to expect the numbers to increase. We are mostly selling what one may refer to as ‘gawkables’, things that we expect people to come and marvel at in the most primitive of ways. We make absolutely no effort to enhance the experience and build on it to pique the curiosity of the visitor and ensure that generation after generation of foreigners want to visit Kenya to experience the mental stimulation our tourist industry might offer.
Over the years, I have had the privilege to experience tourist attractions in a variety of global destinations.
Last week, we spent some time in Israel for a meeting, and inevitably sampled the widely marketed tourist attractions in the country. While religious institutions have played a huge part in marketing the Israeli tourist circuit, the country has not taken this for granted and just sat back to soak in the tourist dollars passively.
TELL OUR STORY
Everywhere one goes in Israel it is obvious that the government has invested heavily in the tourism industry. The high school kids one meets at historical sites will welcome you with a smile and tell you that they appreciate your visit to their country and hope that you are enjoying your stay. People will be eager to explain to you the historical significance of the site you are visiting, and point out other places you ought to see before you go back home. In contrast, Kenya mostly expects nature to sell itself to our tourists.
The main piece lacking in our tourist marketing is a coherent story to accompany the physical attractions. It is time we put in conscious effort to storify our tourism, to explain why our country must remain central to the story of the human race. It is time for us to tell the attractive story of a Kenya that is the cradle of humankind, a place with sufficient diversity to have been the source of all life on this planet.
We shall not always have the Big Five and the authentic tribal settlements that we have sold to our tourists since our country was ‘discovered’ ages ago. However, we shall always have our story, and as long as it remains an interesting one, people will continue to flock here to listen to it and see where it all unfolded.
Lukoye Atwoli is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Dean, Moi University School of Medicine; [email protected]
