Park visits rise as Kenyans embrace domestic tourism

The number of visitors to wildlife tourist facilities increased last year, a report by the Tourism Research Institute (TRI) shows, with Kenyans driving the numbers.

These include national parks, game reserves and marine parks in different parts of the country.

A total of 1.2 million persons (1,286,028) visited tourist facilities under Kenya Wildlife, a 41 per cent increase compared to 913,052 visitors in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

The number was 2.2 million (2,276,114) in 2019 when the country recorded its highest number of international arrivals ever, of a similar figure.

Kenyans have continued to dominate the parks with a total of 1,018,760 citizens visiting facilities across the country last year.

This was up from 690,360 the previous year. Before the pandemic, a total of 1.5 million (1,598, 816) citizens visited these facilities, with Maasai Mara remaining a top destination.

In the international market segment (non-residents), 196,474 visited wildlife facilities, a 19 per cent increase compared to 165,678 in 2020, while residents totalled 70,794 last year up from 57,014.

“It is very encouraging to see Kenyans visit their own parks,” Tourism and Wildlife CS Najib Balala said during the release of the report last week.

The increase in the number of visitors saw gates revenue jump 40 per cent last year to Sh1.5 billion up from 1.1 billion the previous year.

The revenue is however low by 66 per cent when compared to 2019, when Kenya Wildlife made Sh4.4 billion.

“We need to put in more efforts to increase revenues at our national parks,” Balala said.

Meanwhile, wildlife insecurity continues to be characterised by poaching, illicit wildlife trade, commercial poaching for bush meat and destruction of habitats.

“While the illegal killing of elephants and rhinos for illegal trade in ivory and rhino horn has largely been contained, the rise of commercial poaching for bushmeat is emerging as a serious threat to species survival,” TRI says in the Annual Tourism Sector performance Report 2021.

Last year, 24 elephants were poached which was an increase from 11 the previous year.

While elephant poaching has been brought to control, retaliation killings due to human-elephant conflict is on the rise with 108 elephants having been killed as a result.

Six rhinos were also poached during the year 2021 as compared to none (zero) in 2020. Five were killed in Solio Rhino Sanctuary (Central Kenya )while one was poached at Ruma National Park(Nyanza).

In Kenya, there has been an increase in bush meat poaching for the last seven years.

Last year, 13,304 kg of bush meat was recovered as compared to 9,398kg in 2020, a 41 per cent increase.

Human-wildlife conflicts remains an incessant problem in Kenya.

The conflicts are manifested through human deaths and injuries , livestock depredation, crop and property damage, spread of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases and disruption of socio-economic activities, with ramification on wildlife conservation and man agent efforts.

According to the ministry, factors promoting human-wildlife conflict includes increased human population, lack of spatial land use plans and a national land use policy , climate change issues and inadequate resources to address wildlife management issues., where Kenya Wildlife Service budget is at Sh7 billion.

Last year, there were 4,745 reported human-wildlife conflict cases, a slight drop from 5,865 cases, but more than 3,934 cases reported in 2019.

To mitigate conflicts and reduce the negative impacts on human co-existence, the government implemented several mitigation measures during the reporting period, which includes new fences, deployment of modern technology and payment of compensation to victims among others.

It released Sh1.1 billion (Sh1,053,298,000) towards payment of approved compensation claims of 71 human deaths, 2,796 injuries, 91,147 livestock predations, 1,676 crop damages and four property destruction.