The Economic Dynamics of Ecotourism Strategy on Kenyan Lake Victoria Region for Sustainable Development

Abstract

Sustainable development is among the most important challenges facing humanity in the process of improving the quality and overall wellbeing of life. A good wellbeing requires stable employment, higher incomes, better education, higher standards of health and nutrition, quality affordable habitable housing, more equality of opportunity, greater individual freedom and a richer social and cultural life. Such demands to be provided sustainably, balanced economic, social and environmental dimensions of society for current generations without damaging future generations well-being must be reached. But this has always proved difficult, although research has given many reasons for this realisation. As a result, this study attempted to focus on ecotourism strategy as a means for attaining sustainable development. While there is evidence that the promoted benefits of ecotourism benefits can be realized, there are equally as many, cases where ecotourism has failed to its proposed objectives. Some scholars emphasized the potential for ecotourism to sustainably develop both the local people and their environments, existing statistics reveals that a majority of people living in Lake Victoria region of Kenya continue to suffer from the absence of primary opportunities to live decent and satisfying lives. It is against this shortcoming that the study assessed the influence of ecotourism strategy on sustainable development in Lake Victoria region in Kenya with the hope to provide insight on mechanisms to sustainably develop these areas. It interrogated issues on two research questions. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The target population was sought from key informants, observations, focus groups and household surveys including county tourism officers, Kenya tourism board officers, cultural organisations heads, physical visits, residents of the region, which was sampled through convenience sampling in a sample size of 148 respondents. Both secondary and primary sources of data were utilized. The questionnaire observation and interview schedule guides covered items on the influence of ecotourism on the various indicators of the environment, social and cultural and economic dimensions of sustainable development. Collected data was analysed using descrptive statistics and results was presented in form of tables and figures. The study found out that the poverty level of people living in this region is low compared to the national level. Ecotourism strategy was found to influence environment, social and cultural and economic dimensions in the positive directions. The study therefore concluded that ecotourism strategy can influence practices that minimize environmental, social and cultural harm without preventing adequate economic returns to enable sustainable development. The study recommended that good governance can be entrenched among Lake Victoria region communities to optimally benefit from ecotourism strategy. It is a sustainable way of opening up and maximizing natural resources under utilised or not yet exploited to open up the interior of the rural areas of this region