Kenya seeks to promote rating of tourist trade

As nations of the world prepare for Rio + 10 in Johannesburg in 2002, 10 years after the earth summit which called for sustainable development, the tourism industry in Kenya may have something to share with the world.
The Kenyan tourism industry recently endorsed the development of an eco-rating scheme that would clearly demonstrate that companies were pursuing sustainable practices in their operations.
This is line with Agenda 21 for sustainable travel and tourism, which calls for green practices within the tourism industry.
Tourism is an economic activity, which requires an accessible environment, and one that is favourable to the pleasures of discovery.
However, the constraints which this activity can create to the natural environment are multiple and complex.
Until the early 1980s, it appeared that environmental law was the most suitable legal instrument for the co-ordination of the policies and activities of tourism.
Today, this perception is challenged as degradation of the environment in tourism areas has been witnessed widely, despite the existence of environmental legislations in many countries.
The development of tourism in Kenya has been without proper policies, neither has environment law influenced it. Tourism will inevitably continue to grow.
To preserve the environment, it has become necessary to establish systems of regulation for the environment, which recognize and reward best performance.
Such schemes, widely known as certification or eco-labels, mark ka logical step in a series of initiatives to ‘green’ the tourism industry.
Ecorating is not a substitute for other efforts or even the law, but rather, it is an important instrument in the mix that, along with other tools, rules and regulations, seeks to reshape tourism towards sustainable development principles and practices.
In the early 1990s, tourism stakeholders in Kenya began discussions on ways to better manage tourism in the wake of uncontrolled growth and deteriorating visitor numbers and incomes.
In particular, the growing emphasis on ‘ecotourism’ worldwide made it necessary for Kenya to take a more pragmatic stance in planning its tourist industry to maximize income and minimise impacts.
At the Ecotourism at a Cross Roads Conference held in 1997, it was recommended, among other things, that a means to verify compliance with principles of ecotourism be created.
In the following years, other forums have reaffirmed, the need for a rating system for Kenya’s tourism. Individual tourism businesses and some industry associations have attempted to improve practices in the industry to achieve sustainability, but on the whole, the efforts have been fragmented, discontinuous, ill-defined and lacking in resources.
A major step in the process of developing an ecorating scheme for Kenya was the organization of workshops in Nairobi and Mombasa by the Ecotourism Society of Kenya (ESOK) to educate stakeholders on issues relevant to the development of a scheme.
The target groups or stakeholders were tour operators, hotels, lodges, NGOs, industry associations, government departments, training institutions, universities, landowners, community groups and others.
The conclusion drawn from these workshops was that it is possible to move towards a scheme of genuine certification for Kenya’s tourism sector in the near future.
The increasing realization by most conservationists, tour operators, village elders, governments etc that tourism has pitfalls has led to calls for properly managed tourism.
Yet the fragmented and discontinuity in the efforts by tourism stakeholders to define how best to manage tourism for sustainability lies the need for development of an ecorating scheme in Kenya.
The launching of a certification scheme will provide a market-based tool to differentiate such operations from others that are less environmentally and/or socially sound. More so, the scheme will serve to improve the quality of the product and assure minimum environmental norms.
The chairman of the Ecotourism Society, Jake Grieves-Cook, notes that many operators around the world have claimed to be ‘eco-friendly’ in order to jump into the ecotourism bandwagon.
“However we must ensure that our adoption of the principles of ecotourism is genuine if we are truly to succeed in raising our standards. This is where an ecorating scheme can help, by ensuring that practices and attitudes within the industry meet the exact standards required so that we are not simply paying lip-service to the concept of ecotourism without actually improving our performance” said Grieves-Cook.
The ecorating initiative received support from the Kenya Tourism Board, the body responsible for marketing Kenya as a destination. The KTB stressed that the industry needed to act now if it was to genuinely improve its performance and image abroad.
While endorsing the ecorating initiative, the industry acknowledged that there are a lot of example of good practices in Kenya today-but against what parameters do we measure their performance?
This is why we need a scheme that will help measure the reward performance, other than relying on vague statements of commitment, which cannot be evaluated”.
The ecotourism society of Kenya has been involved in activities aimed at increasing the understanding of tourism industry of ecorating.
Ecorating is a voluntary tourism initiative that offers companies a systematic approach for improving their practices and, importantly verify the percentage of their achievement against certain prescribed standards.
Responsibility for developing the ecorating scheme has been given to the Ecotourism Society of Kenya. It is intended that early see the completion of a model scheme for Kenya.
The scheme will support members through activities such as availing guides and manuals for best practice.
Further, the scheme will provide marketing support by creating awareness about the scheme will provide marketing support by creating awareness about the scheme and promoting companies that achieve certification. This will be done through printed material as well as the electronic media.
The long-term plan is to identify a network of orgnisations and/or individuals who may provide direct support and advice to businesses seeking certification.