Longtime readers of this column will know that I often use the Kenyan tourism sector to illustrate just how difficult it is to create a new economic sector that will provide employment opportunities on a large scale.
And the key point here is that such progress must be founded on the in-built advantages which we have as a country.
But to recap briefly for the benefit of those who have not read this argument before, let me emphasise that the creation of economic opportunity is built around institutions and infrastructure. These two are what provide the enabling environment for private sector investment, which in turn is what creates jobs.
For example, both Tanzania and Somalia have far more extensive beachfront than Kenya, and some spectacular pristine beaches. But so far at least, they have not proved to be very much competition for Kenyan beach resort tourism, with Somalia of course being possibly the last place any tourist would want to visit for a relaxing holiday at the beach.
Likewise, there are any number of countries in Africa that have both wildlife diversity and total wildlife populations not much different from Kenya's: Zimbabwe, Zambia, DR Congo, etc. But none of them have been able to use their wildlife resource quite as effectively as Kenyans have.
Why is this? Well, between our various hospitality training institutions (above all, Utalii College) and the infrastructure that makes it easy for tour operators to move their clients around the country, we are substantially ahead in terms of providing “the African safari experience” with South Africa being the only country which is way ahead of us.
This question of what may be termed “targeted infrastructure” is key. Not only the Moi International Airport in Mombasa, which is the first stop for many tourists coming to Kenya, but also the very much smaller airstrips to be found in the game parks for which there is the most demand.
I remember years ago, when flying into the Maasai Mara National Reserve from Mombasa, I remarked to the pilot of the very small “six seater” aircraft on which I had travelled that it was amazing just how many stops we had made at various small airstrips within the park, before we finally reached the one at which I was to get off, and proceed by road to the camp where I would be staying.
The pilot smiled and asked me how many airstrips I thought were in the Mara. I answered that I had counted three, so there may be as many as four or five. He then laughed out loud and told me that there were no less than 10 airstrips within that relatively small game park.
That is the level of infrastructure that had been found necessary to ensure that tourists could make a quick trip to the Mara, and not have to waste any time on long drives through the Kenyan countryside, before they arrived at their destination.
But of course, we do not always get it right. There is an Isiolo International Airport, which is not very far from some of the expansive game parks in northern Kenya.
As far as I know, there is no rush by tour companies to take full advantage of this piece of modern infrastructure, nor yet are there any scheduled flights ever advertised in the national media, for those travellers who might want to use this “international airport.”
The reason for this lack of enthusiasm of course being that this part of the country has a notoriously high level of insecurity.
And now to my main point: we are often told that Kenya is poised to lead Africa when it comes to all things ICT, and especially in the nascent field of Artificial Intelligence.
Which amounts to saying that Kenya will one day be as successful in the ICT sector as it has been in tourism.
Well, only after I see the infrastructure and the institutions that support this claim, will I believe that the Kenyan ICT sector will in time create anything close to the roughly one million jobs (directly and indirectly) that have been created by tourism.