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{
    "id": 836639,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/836639/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 183,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "October 9, 2018 SENATE DEBATES 42 Sen. (Dr.) Zani",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. Allow me to start by congratulating Sen. Olekina for this Motion and the passion with which he presented it. This is a Motion that touches on different cultures and ethnic groups. It is aimed at improving our resources as a country. Tourism is the second largest source of foreign exchange after agriculture knowing that we also export, for we are an agricultural society. I am a Member of the Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industrialisation and we need to take this Motion seriously as it infuses a lot of life in the Kenya national tourism blue print. The Kenya national tourism blue print might be there on paper but as legislators and actors, we need to find a way to infuse life into it versus the realism. We go with the realism that we want to increase our resources in this country but with the realism, we also allow so much to go to waste. There are many tourists who will clog into a hotel and when they ask the hotel attendants or the hotel owners where they can go, the attendants or the owners do not want to give that information because they feel that it is better to keep them in the hotel for them to spend more within that hotel. What we miss is that they could have gone to a cultural village and seen something which they would then inform others about. Tourists are very fond of exchanging information. The tourists from China and Japan send messages and they have a lot of enthusiasm. They send information telling their friends that: “I have been in this place, come back”. During the wildebeest migration, they will be there running from corner to corner, trying to see that lion. This is because for him, it is about going to certain places. Apart from people thinking about investing and buying a house, the social indicators show that people’s sense of actualisation is coming from travel. Therefore, there is a big market to tap into. In Kenya, we have focused a lot on conference tourism and business travel but we could move more to eco-tourism and cultural tourism which is not just about having Eco lodges where tourists go to, but we can have innovative things. I once passed through a region in Kwale where I found so many English people in one scene. When I asked what they were doing there, I was told that they were there for a week, living like the Digos. People are now looking for that cultural experience. They want to go somewhere else and live like those people. We have cases of young men and women who have lived among the Maasais. As one of the Senators before me said, we could have centres for sports tourism where tourists targeting to meet the best athletes can do so. We have people who are happy to go to countries or come to Kenya to meet these athletes and when they meet them outside the country, they do recognise them more than we do. That variation and a little bit of creativity is what is needed. Looking through the figures, we could do better. The average given now is that in 2017, we had 81,997 visitors. It is an average because we have not done as well in some periods because of political strife in the country and the issues that have arisen here and there. We have also had cases of inflation within the country. That is an average but we can do much better. Using technology is the way to go and we could also use data. Apart from knowing that Mr. Smith arrived in Kenya, do we know where he went to, where he would have wanted to go and what sort of things interest him as a person? This sort of data is The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}