Empowering Kenyan Maasai women through cultural Bomas Tourism

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the empowerment of Maasai women through tourism. Using cultural bomas tourism as a case study, the article explores the different ways this form of tourism is contributing to the empowerment of Maasai women in the Amboseli region; a rural setting where tourism is a thriving industry. This article draws on data from a larger ethnographic study whose focus was Maasai involvement in tourism development. The data used in this article was gathered through primary sources such as participant observation; group and key informant interviews; as well as secondary sources. The results revealed that cultural bomas tourism was making positive contributions in empowering Maasai women in five realms namely: social, economic, psychological, political, and educational. The study concludes that, while to some extent tourism was empowering Maasai women, the benefits they accrued were not big enough to transform their livelihoods and improve their standards of living. However, it is suggested that if well managed, Maasai women’s involvement in tourism can, in the long run, lead to their empowerment.