TOURISM REVAMPED

As the world celebrated World Tourism day last week,two things were uppermost in my mind:the East African Community and the devolution of administrative units in the country to counties.

Lets start with the issue of counties.From the way they have been structured the idea is to have all these units becoming self sustaining in the future.A lot of potential benefits are in store for the tourism sector in Kenya and specifically for all the counties.

In the past we have had all major events be it international conferences or award ceremonies and product launches all being held in Nairobi.It is very rare that this major events venture out of Nairobi though Mombasa has had a share of its own.

I think its about time these counties started bidding for these events just the way we have countries pitching and stating their case to host the Olympic or the World Cup.This will not only encourage economic growth in this areas but it will lead to better infrastructure and development of real estate in these counties and this can only be good news for the residents.Any county that gets the bid to host an event will not only have to work extra hard to provide the necessary infrastructure but it will have to be top notch too.The hotels in these areas will definitely have to raise their accommodation standards and cuisine to world class standards as tourists be it local or foreign visiting these areas will definitely be willing to spend their dollars or Kenyan shillings on quality services and goods.In this case goods will involve cultural artifacts and Kenyan designers in these areas had better get their sketch books out because its time we showed the world what we can come up with using our local textiles be it the khanga or the kikoi.

The opening up of the East African common market that encompasses Kenya,Uganda,Tanzania,Burundi and Rwanda came into force on the 1st of July 2010.This allowed for free movement of goods,services and people .Looking at the potential this holds for the member countries is mind boggling.But one area that has a lot to gain from this is the tourism market.

Each of the member countries in the community have a film festival and it is about time organizers in each of these countries thought of consolidating this into one big fete.Not only will it be a way for each of the film makers from member countries to learn from each other it will encourage film tourism (which is defined as movie induced tourism among the citizens of member states).

The five member countries though sharing a trading bloc have and hold unique histories and cultures and the films from these countries reflect the diverse ways culture has influenced the way of life of people in these states.Having a regional annual film festival will be a way for film makers from these countries to learn from each other but it will definitely encourage residents from the region to travel to member countries.And there can be no better way of fostering the east African community spirit .