A large proportion of Kenya’s tourism centres around safaris and tours of its great National Parks and Game Reserves. While most tourists do visit for safari there is also great cultural aspects of the country to explore in cities like Mombasa and Lamu on the coast. The Masai Mara National Reserve is usually where the Maasai Village can be found that most tourists like to visit. There is also a lot of beaches and beach hotels, resorts to visit in Kenya, where you can experience water boarding, surfing, wind surfing and many more fun activities that are good for Kenya’s economy.
Kenya National Parks are controlled by Kenya Wildlife Services, who look after and protect the areas. The wages of workers in the National Parks are usually funded by entrance fees charged for safaris and tours. Unlike Animal Reserves, National Parks allow strictly no human habitation.
Amboseli National Park, formerly Maasai Amboseli Game Reserve is in Kajiado District, Rift Valley Province in Kenya. The park is 390 km² (150 mi2) in size at the core of an 8,000 km² (3,000 mi2) ecosystem that spreads across the Kenya-Tanzania border. The local people are mainly Maasai, but people from other parts of the country have settled there attracted by the successful tourist-driven economy and intensive agriculture along the system of swamps that makes this low-rainfall area (average 350 mm (14 in) one of the best wildlife-viewing experiences in the world. The park protects two of the five main swamps, and includes a dried-up Pleistocene lake and semi-arid vegegation.
Nairobi National Park is a national park in Kenya. It became Kenya’s first national park when it was established in 1946. It is located approximately 7 kilometres (4 mi) south of the centre of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, and is small in relation to most of Africa’s national parks. Nairobi’s skyscrapers can be seen from the park. The park has a large and varied wildlife population. Only a fence separates the park’s animals from the city. Migrating herbivores concentrate in the park during the dry season. It is one of Kenya’s most successful rhinoceros sanctuaries. The park’s proximity to Nairobi causes conflicts between the park’s animals and local people and threatens animals’ migration routes.
Statistics
In 1995, there were 34,211 hotel beds with a 44% occupancy rate. 1,036,628 visitors arrived in Kenya in 2000 and tourism receipts totalled $257 million. That year, the US government estimated the average cost of staying in Nairobi at $202 per day, compared to $94 to $144 per day in Mombasa, depending on the time of year. In 2013, the Ugandan Tourism Board recognized Kenya’s tourism industry as generating an amount of $66 million annually from Ugandan tourists.