Wildlife - Based Tourism: Kenya and Tanzania Assignment (Dissertation Review Sample)

Wildlife-based Tourism- Kenya and Tanzania
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TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1.LITERATURE REVIEW3
1.1.Wildlife- based attraction sites3
1.2.The impact of wildlife-based tourism.5
1.3.Challenges affecting tourism in Tanzania and Kenya7
2.CONCLUSION8
3.REFERENCE LIST9
1.1 LITERATURE REVIEW
Tourism is one of the world growing sector in the hospitality sector embedded with numerous impacts to economies of nations that have numerous tourist attractions. In most developing countries such as Kenya and Tanzania wildlife-based Tourism has flourished for the last decade becoming one of the new impetus for economic development in these nations due to its immense contributions in creating employment opportunities and generating foreign exchange. The relevance of wildlife in Tanzania and Kenya has attracted various intellectuals and other persons of interest in the tourism who have written various articles about reviewing various aspects of wildlife-based tourism in Tanzania and Kenya. This existing literature act as intelligent agents that undercover the nuggets of the overview of wildlife-based tourism in this nations. This paper examines the existing pieces of literature review on the wildlife tourism in Tanzania and Kenya. It will specifically review the existing the literature on key wildlife destinations sites in this nations, the impact of wildlife-based tourism and challenges affecting wildlife in these nations.
1.2 Wildlife- based attraction sites.
Climate and biodiversity are the key contributing factors to wildlife-based tourism in Kenya and Tanzania. (Karjalainen et.al, 2015) in the article, Kenya and Tanzania Beyond, the authors points climate as one of the contributing factors to the vast growth of wildlife-based tourism in Kenya and Tanzania. They argue that East Africa climate has one of the perfect climates in the world. The climate is characterized by prolonged hot, dry season with alternative short rain and cold seasons which facilitate the vast growth of savannah grassland leading wildlife to flourish. The fact that the weather is cool during the morning and warm during the day makes it pleasant tourists to visit various wildlife destinations during peak seasons. According to (Kilungu et.al, 2014) Tanzania tourism has performed very well for the last three decades. Tanzanian tourists arrivals have increased significantly from 0.07 million tourists in 1982 to over 11 million tourists in the year 2013. Scenic beauty, mega fauna, and other natural features are among the leading tourist’s attractions in Tanzania (Kilungu et.al, 2014). The biodiversity in protected areas specifically wildlife accounts for most of the countries tourists’ attraction. Tanzania is home to various famous national parks and the astonishing Mt. Kilimanjaro that projects high above Serengeti. A vast majority of tourists coming to Tanzania are attracted by the spectacular wildlife adventures across various National Parks and Game parks around the country such as Serengeti and Tarangire National Parks (Kilungu et.al, 2014). According to Lana, one of the famous wildlife tourist attraction game parks is Serengeti National Park. He identifies Serengeti National Park as one of the largest game parks in Tanzania characterized by extensive treeless plains with millions wild animals searching for new grasslands. The suitable time to wildlife in Serengeti National Park is between the month of December and June. It is because during this period of the year is characterized by dry season on contrary to the wet season between March and May and the coldest period of between June and October. The spectacular migration of tens of thousands of Wildebeest and Zebras takes place in June. Being one of the world’s most astonishing natural event, the migration wildebeests and zebras attracts many tourists millions of tourists annually. Large herds of antelope, cheetahs, lions, hyenas, hunting dog, Jackal, and buffalos make contribute the spectacular view of Serengeti National Park.
According to Shushu, in his article, Tourism in Kenya, Kenya’s national parks and reserves form the pillars of Kenya’s. Wildlife-based tourism is a significant generator of income and foreign exchange. Shushu states that Kenya is ranked as one of the leading tourist destinations in Africa, receiving over 1.5 million international tourists annually. Wildlife-based tourism earns 25% of gross domestic product and more 10% of the total formal sector employment in the country (Shushu, 2014).
According to World Wildlife Fund, in the article, Kenya safaris, Kenya is one of the original safari destinations. It is because Kenya is home to amazing 25000 different animal species. These species involve all the iconic safari fauna. That is, Lions, elephants, zebras and giraffes among many (World Wildlife Fund, 2014). Gabalfa in his article, Tourism in Kenya, he argues that Kenya is one of the leading tourist attraction sites in Africa, it strategic geographical location, lying to the right of equator, means that Kenya has a hot climate. The prevalent climate has led to the availability of various animal species that are largely found in protected areas and act as tourist’s attractions attracting millions of people worldwide (Maingi, 2013). The wide range of wildlife in Kenyans games parks and game reserves acts as home to various wild animals such as elephants, lions, albatrosses and cheetah. The big Five-Lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and buffalo attracts zoologists, lovers of wildlife as well as hunters. Most of Kenyan tourism is based on nature attraction with 10% of the country being allocated for wildlife conservation in efforts to promote nature-based tourism (Sindiga, 2014).
1.3 The impact of wildlife based Tourism.
Literate review in this section reflects the impact of wildlife-based tourism to the economy of Tanzania and Kenya. According to (Makonjio et.al, 2013) in the article, Tourism Attractions and Satisfaction of Amboseli National Park, Kenya, large wild mammals of Kenya are the prime attraction of international tourists. Kenya has reserved large extension of land- 440000km2 as protected area for wild animals in an aim to attract more tourists. They argue that Kenya has benefited largely from revenue generated from its rich wildlife resources in this protected areas. It is because that wildlife-based tourism generates about $350 million to the Kenyan economy annually that amounts to 12% of the country’s economy. Okello gives an example of the revenue output of an adult lion. They state that a lion in Maasai Mara National Park in Kenya in its lifetime will earn US $500000 in foreign exchange. A lion is estimated to be worth $7000 per annual in income while an elephant herd has an estimated value of $600000 per year in Kenya. According to Okello tourism in Kenya is largely based on wildlife and since the establishment of the first National Park in the year 1948, Kenya has witnessed steady increase in the number both public and private wildlife conservation areas. Despite the fact that tourism goes beyond the big the big five, to scenic landscapes, unique cultures and physical features, wildlife remains one of the Kenya’s largest source of tourism attraction and satisfaction as well as one of the leading source of foreign exchange (Okello, 2013). In the article, Effects of tourism in Kenya, Makau argues that Kenya has 43 national parks and largely writes about Maasai Mara due to its trademark in wildlife tourism. Located in a terrain that is mainly grassland makes the game park on of the most populated game parks in Kenya attracting most of the tourists that visit Kenya. Maasai Mara is famous due to over 1.2 million wildebeest and over 26000 zebra that act as tourists (Makau, 2015). According to Korir, the growing interest of the number of tourists visiting Kenya to such as wildlife lovers and zoologist the Kenya has indirectly benefited. The growing number of tourist over the decade have created a boom in the resort and hotel construction (Korir, 2013). Argues that despite the growing competition from other destination, Kenya is still one of the foremost tourist destinations in Africa. Having set apart 10% of the country for wildlife conservation, Kenya is popular for its game viewing as it is popular pursuit as many tourists are predominantly interested in viewing "the big five”. Its Safari Product is a popular brand that has seen the country record a remarkable increase in the number of visitors. The notes that the country records over one million tourist’s arrivals while the bed capacity has risen dramatically to over 90000 beds in various classified resorts and hotels. The wildlife-based tourism sector has employer over 400,000 people, which represents about 9% of the total workforce in the country. According to, the wildlife-based tourism have had a positive impact on the environment he praises the concept of Eco-tourism that has been championed globally in all global tourists in a view to developing environmental friendly types of tourism. He asserts that Kenya has significantly benefited from eco-tourism by developing environmentally friendly tourism that ensures protection and conservation of the big five and other animal species in respect to the future and present generations (Wambui, 2010)
1.4 Challenges affecting tourism in Tanzania and Kenya
Poaching is one the main challenge affecting wildlife-based tourism in most developing nations. According to Jeffrey, tens of thousands of elephants are being killed annually in Africa. Due to Asia’s overwhelming demand for ivory poaching has drastically increased over the past decade. Jeffrey is worried that despite the deployment of special units and formulation of various laws po...