EFFECTS OF TOURISM INITIATIVES ON LOCAL COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT IN KAKAMEGA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Community empowerment is concerned with the various approaches in which members of a group collaborate so that they can influence the outcome of various decisions that affect their interests. The indigenous people who live around tourist sites worldwide do not benefit from the activities of the many tourist attractions in their area. The main objective of the study was to determine the effect of tourism initiatives on local community empowerment.The specific objectives were; to examine the effect of cultural tourism; to establish the effect of nature tourism; to assess the impact of recreational tourism and to ascertain the challenges of tourism initiatives on community empowerment in Kakamega County. The study adopted the use of survey research design. Target population was 53,325 while the sample size was 397 respondents for local community and 5 key informants. Stratified and simple random sampling procedures were used to select the sample size. The research study used self administered questionnaires and interview schedules to collect data. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics based on the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The results indicated that recreational tourism is more practiced among individuals living in the local communities with a coefficient of 0.540 as compared to cultural and nature tourism. The study also discovered that nature, cultural and recreational tourism significantly contributed to community empowerment (R2 = 0.665). In order to increase the contribution of both nature and cultural tourism towards community empowerment, the research recommended the development of education programs which can instill cultural values to the young individuals and women between the ages of 24 – 35. The outcome of the study could be used to assist the management of the tourist sites, to understand better the empowerment strategies for the local community. It can also be used by the local leadership to encourage the youth to pursue relevant education so that they can get jobs in the tourist sites and alleviate poverty.