Safari Rally key player in growth of Kenya’s economy
Sam Karangatha (inset) competes on the final day of the three-day e-Safari Rally competition on July 19, 2020.
What you need to know:
- The Safari now ranks as one of the all-time high international events with the biggest direct economic benefits of sporting or social events ever held in Kenya after the 1985 UN Women Conference Decade, the 2007 World Social Forum and 1987 All Africa Games.
- The findings showed that the overall satisfaction level of almost 9.3 percent of visitors cited that they were satisfied with the experience of the WRC, compared to 6.4 percent of those sampled, and they will certainly recommend it.
Figures don't lie, and the official ones for the 2021/22 WRC Safari Rally are remarkable.
There was Sh38 billion in total economic value plus Sh4.5 billion in free media publicity generated by this seventh round of the high-profile World Rally Championship (WRC) which attracted over 100,000 spectators.
This is no mean achievement.
A record 78 million people — to add on to the 886 million cumulative WRC annual global TV audience — watched the Safari in 150 countries on a very busy mid-year premium events calendar competing with, among others, the Tour de France (cycling), Wimbledon (tennis) and the European football leagues.
The Safari has continued to grow as an economic entity and is projected to make a significant contribution to the growth of Kenya's economy in tourism, jobs creation and tax revenue in 2023, according to a Tourism Research Institute report.
The report is titled “WRC Safari Rally 2021: Visitors’ Feedback and Analysis of the Rally’s Impact on Kenya’s Tourism and the Country’s Economy.”
More jobs are expected to be grown this year from the government’s bottom-up approach which targets the low-end traders who will benefit from business hubs which will be constructed around areas with high human traffic in Kedong and Soysambu Conservancy spectators’ areas, and the entertainment belt along the 10-kilometre Moi South Road.
The Tourism Research Institute reported that the 2021 WRC Safari Rally generated Sh8.258 billion in Total Tourism Internal Demand (TTID) between June-July in the lead-up to the Safari Rally which was then returning to Kenya after 19 years.
Direct effects
This supported 24,758 full-time jobs which generated Sh3.757 billion as labour income, the report says.
In addition, the Safari Rally generated Sh9.610 billion in value addition and Sh15.780 billion as output.
The Safari attracts foreign competitors and a retinue of technical staff who spent Sh1. 35 billion on accommodation, transport and food in the seven days of the rally week.
“It is noteworthy that all impacts have a starting point in the economy that is defined as direct effects.
“These set off iterations of indirect (inter-industry production and induced (labour) spending,” says the report.
The Safari now ranks as one of the all-time high international events with the biggest direct economic benefits of sporting or social events ever held in Kenya after the 1985 UN Women Conference Decade, the 2007 World Social Forum and 1987 All Africa Games.
The findings showed that the overall satisfaction level of almost 9.3 percent of visitors cited that they were satisfied with the experience of the WRC, compared to 6.4 percent of those sampled, and they will certainly recommend it.
Bottom-up economic
“Multipliers were used to analyse the impacts and effects of changes in tourism demands as a result of the motor rally event. The common multipliers computed were associated with output, income, value addition and employment in the industry,” said the report.
“We want this international event to have a Kenyan flavour in sync with the government’s bottom-up economic transformation agenda… a strong hustler feel… a people flavour with the introduction of hustler’s bazaar,” said Ababu Namwamba, the Cabinet Secretary of Youth Affairs, Sports and the Arts after touring Uhuru Park, the proposed starting point of the 70th WRC Safari Rally and the Wildlife Training and Research Centre Naivasha Service Park on March 2.
Uhuru and Central parks will have hustlers’ bazaars where Kenyans will use the influx of local and foreign fans to trade their wares.
“The government will set aside ‘customised spaces’ at the various rallying points, with traders allowed to sell their goods and take pleasure in watching the thrills and spills of the internationally acclaimed rally,” Namwamba said.
“If either you are selling traditional baskets or fire-grilled delicacy popularly known as mutura, you will have space in the bazaar and a chance to make money,” the minister added.
We can only grow this WRC Safari Rally product to partly realise the UN-Habitat III proposal in 2013 to make Nairobi the sports capital city of the world by 2028.
