Determinants of inbound tourism to Kenya

Abstract

Tourism is one of the six priority sectors identified in the economic pillar of Kenya Vision 2030 development blue print of Kenya. These sectors are expected to spur Kenya’s Economic Growth to double digit and retain that growth to the year 2030 and beyond. Despite making positive progress, Kenya has not fully exploited the existing potential in the tourism sector. This study explores the factors that influence the inbound tourism to Kenya. Specifically, it investigates factors that influence the international tourist arrivals in Kenya from the major source market. The study employs General Linear model in estimation upon addressing the basic assumptions of the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) which includes accounting for Multicollinearity, No serial correlation, Normality, Unit root test, heteroscedasticity and Cointegration. At 95% confidence interval, Relative prices between the sending and receiving country, Population of the sending country (UK), and tourism advertisement costs incurred by KTB are revealed to be positively and statistically significant factors that affect inbound tourism in Kenya. Based on the study findings, it is suggested that the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism and various tourism agencies should focus in re-examining its tourism promotion strategies and contemplate expanding new markets from other countries with relatively high population as well as high prices compared to Kenya.