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In
Adventures In The Tourist Trade travel writer Susan Marling meets the
people who earn their living from tourism, and experiences the benefits and
harmful effects of the industry.
Tourism and the
Community
Everyone agrees that such a huge and potentially damaging industry needs
management, and that the profits of tourism ought to be enjoyed by local
people. But there are different theories about how this ought to happen. Some
think the answer is in thinking 'big' and bringing in international companies
who can market destinations and create large numbers of jobs. Others take the
view that tourism works best on a smaller scale and with direct community
involvement.
One such community project, run by Porini Ecotourism, is the subject of the
first programme in the series. Seeing how, to a large extent, the Masai people
in Kenya have missed out on the revenue and other benefits of tourism, a new
tourism venture has been set up by Kenyan citizen Jake Grieves-Cook. He has
leased a large swathe of land from the Masai people, close to the Amboseli
National Park, south of Nairobi, and has set up a private game reserve.
"During the last 20 years, there had been increasing hostility towards
wildlife. Rhino were exterminated, while elephant were so harassed that they
stopped migrating into Eselenkei," explains Grieves-Cook.
"For the first time in years, elephants have been seen in Eselenkei, as have
lions, leopards, cheetahs, buffaloes, giraffes, wildebeests, zebras, impalas,
Thomson's gazelles, Grant's gazelles, striped hyenas, jackals, bat-eared
foxes, serval cats, genet cats and aardvarks. We hope this scheme can be
extended elsewhere in Kenya."
The Masai receive money from the lease and a levy is charged for every tourist
who comes to the small tented camp on the land. In addition they are offered
work as rangers and roadworkers at the camp.
The venture has changed local attitudes to wildlife. Where once lions and
other animals were there to be killed as a rite of passage or as 'bushmeat',
now the animals are seen as a precious resource - the attraction that will
keep the tourists coming. For the Maasai, who are finding it increasingly
difficult to live by cattle herding alone, the new source of money has meant
better access to education and medicine, yet they have not had to move or to
compromise their traditional way of life.
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