Let's embrace local tourism

Someone may ask themselves what is local tourism?  Well, join the ride with me as I unravel to you this mystery. According to the English dictionary, the term tourism is described as an act of travelling or sightseeing, particularly away from one’s home. Let me bring to your attention that we have several types of tourism, that is figuratively speaking, and they include; libel tourism, sex tourism. I’ll add another one which is local tourism, which is our main focus at the moment.

Our country is worldly known for her rich wildlife heritage which in turn, leads to booming in the tourism sector. This is evident since the sector is undoubtedly one of the high-foreign revenue earners. People come from far and wide across the globe to come and see our wildlife. I was of the thought that, we should not take this for granted. Why are we underestimating this? We ought to appreciate this detail big time. Personally, I feel awful, when we hear news making headlines that our treasured jumbos are diminishing at every crack of the dawn! Well, that is a story for another day.

Far from it, I have a strong feeling even us locals, have an enormous role to play in promoting tourism. First and foremost, it is easy. We only need to wipe out this warped perception that is buried deep us, that- one has to be a ‘mzungu’ meaning from Europe, so as to qualify to go and visit Mombasa  or any other national park in the country.

It will cost you roughly a fair deal if you resolve to travel around your country and become the biggest beneficiary of Kenya’s best wildlife and many more breath-taking types of scenery. For crying out loud, this is our country and it doesn’t belong to the whites. My urge to all Kenyans is; get your act together and get out there and explore your home.

On the hand, the government as well has not been left behind, we are thankful of the efforts you have put in place to promote local tourism. Among these is an initiative which was undertaken by Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) - ‘Magical Kenya’ with the hash tag ‘#TembeaKenya’. This certainly has mobilized people to go out of their way and made attempts to embark on awesome safaris in the country. I recently visited their website and I found it very informative and resourceful as well. I dare you to visit the site as soon as you are done reading this piece.

In addition, the government has a long way to go in convincing the Kenyans adopting this endeavor. It should act in the friendliest way possible. Eradicate everything to do with human-animal conflict in all prone areas; Make peace with the locals first. On the same vein, we now have local or the county governments, this makes it easier by reducing bureaucracy that comes along. We urge those second-tier governments to take this very serious. Educate people about it and then let them come for the services. I’m aware entry charges are lower compared to those of the foreigners, but still make them affordable to common people in the countryside. Go ahead and advertise this heavily on both print and broadcast platforms till it gets into peoples’ subconscious-until it becomes their way of life.

In doing all the above, no one will continue illegal logging, deforestation, poaching or any other vice that contravenes our wildlife’s habitation.

Consequently, dear fun and adventure-lovers Kenyans, as you plan your next vacation think of places within not without. Believe me; you will not regret even a single bit. You will just wonder to yourself…what was I thinking all this while? Enjoy as you purpose to give this a try.