Sustainable tourism and economic growth nexus in Kenya: policy implications for post-Covid-19

Abstract

Purpose: The COVID-19 global pandemic has caused an unprecedented socio-economic impact. It has also raised our awareness of the role sustainability needs to play in our economic activities. This study investigated how sustainable tourism has contributed to economic growth in Kenya. Research Methodology: Eviews 10 software was used to analyze the time-series data. Drawing on data from 1995 to 2020, Johansen co-integration, Granger causality, and regression approaches were used. Results: The study found out that tourism employment and GDP are positively connected to economic growth in Kenya. The causality was unidirectional from economic growth to tourism contribution to GDP and employment, with a long-run linkage of the study determinants. Limitations: Since this research used the secondary sources of data, similar studies in the future may concentrate on the primary data sources to investigate the relationship between tourism employment and economic advancement. Contribution: At the new normal in the post-Covid-19 period, the study suggests that legislators and tourism policymakers should focus on the policies aimed at promoting sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism should be managed following the three pillars of sustainability. Keywords: Development, Domestic, Moderate, Regional, Scenario

Tourism Sustainability and COVID-19 Pandemic: Is There a Positive Side?

“…In the third and the most crucial post-pandemic phase, the authors presented the potential challenges for the tourism industry in the face of crises and provided corresponding solutions to ensure more sustainable and resilient growth. A combination of these solutions can fulfill the need for a sustainable strategy of operation raised in previous studies (e.g., [9,12,32,56]).…”

“…To ensure a pre-emptive response and the prompt recuperation of travel demand, there is a need for an approach that can be consistent in the long run [73]. In essence, devising a sustainable strategy of operation is a highly significant question for the development of tourism in the post-pandemic era [9,32] because the pandemic has caused only a short-term halt to the pre-existent scenarios of over-tourism and unsustainable practices [23,24].…”

“…The positive side of the pandemic is often overlooked by international scholarship [29], but the clarification of both positive and negative impacts is necessary for developing a sustainable strategy to deal with major event crises such as pandemics [30]. Unlike any other industry, the ruinous impact of the pandemic on tourism calls for a sustainable strategy to ensure more resilient and viable growth [9,[31][32][33]. Thus, the present study has been conducted with the aim to review the extant literature in the area of COVID-19 and the tourism industry's sustainability and resilience in future crises.…”

Stakeholder Synergy For Sustainable Tourism

“…According to Covey Fitri and Anwar (2020), synergy combines elements to create a superior product of higher quality. In line with Bitok (2019); da Conceição Walkowski, dos Santos Pires, and Tricárico (2019); Sulistiowati, Meiliyana, Ma'arif, and Meilinda (2020), managing tourism should involve stakeholders to increase tourist visits.…”

Covid-19 pandemic effects and responses in the Maasai Mara conservancy

“…The importance of domestic tourism in conservation areas on the African continent is under appreciated. Prior to the Covid-19 domestic tourism was on the rise and had compensated for earlier 'dips' in international arrivals (Bitok, 2020). In a unique worldwide study of low-income countries prior to the Covid-19 pandemic income redistribution and overall poverty mitigation is suggested to be higher from domestic tourism than international tourism (Llorca-Rodríguez et al, 2020).…”