While countries often tend to focus on international tourism due to the revenue earned through exports, domestic tourism remains the leading form of tourism, representing an important tool for regional economic growth and development.

Domestic tourism is the main driving force of the Travel and Tourism sector in major economies globally, accounting for a total travel and tourism spending of 73% in 2017 and 71.2% in 2018.

According to World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC 2018), China is now the leading domestic tourism market, closely followed by USA, Germany, India, Japan, UK.

Strong domestic tourism in most of these countries is driven by a growing or sizeable middle-class population, an increase in spending power among domestic consumers, the sheer size of the countries, governments’ initiatives in promoting new locations, and strong or improving transportation infrastructure and economic links between different internal regions.

Quality transport infrastructure enhances the experience of a destination and quality of life within it for both visitors and residents.

What does domestic tourism mean?

Domestic tourism involves activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment but within their country of residence for not more than one year for leisure, business and other purposes (UNWTO, 2010)

Governments use domestic tourism as a tool to eliminate local poverty, generate employment and economic growth, upgrade infrastructure and alleviate pressure from overcrowding through, for instance, discretionary pricing policies and the provision of non-wage tourism benefits.

Forms of domestic tourism;

• A one-day excursion by urban population
• Urban tourism by rural residents
• Visiting friends and relatives
• Sightseeing tourism of natural and cultural kinds
• Seaside resort tourism
• Shopping
• Business and pilgrimage tourism
• Traditional sightseeing
• Special interest tourism
• Historic and cultural areas
• Natural landscape areas
• Traditional national parks
• Newly developed areas
• Eco-tourism
• Sports tourism
• Recreation
• Educational tourism

While the economies were grappling with the covid 19 pandemic, tourism was the hardest hit sector of the economy due to the international travel restrictions. As the sector seek to recover from this impact, domestic tourism has proven to be key contributor.

Why should domestic travel be a top priority for both the government as well as its citizens?

1. Domestic tourism is a major driving factor of Kenya’s tourism and travel sector, contributing more than half of its GDP. This attracts both local and international investors to invest in both transport and infrastructure
2. Domestic travel helps address seasonality within regions, while also dispersing tourists to less visited rural areas, which tend to be overlooked by foreign visitors.
3. Job creation. Travel and hospitality industries depends a lot on the domestic tourism. For instance, in Kenya, during the festive seasons, the SGR, buses and most hotels at the Coast are usually fully booked.
4. Creation of business opportunities. Domestic tourism is used as a tool to eliminate poverty by generating employment and to spur economic growth at local level.
5. It helps reduce burn out. Everyone deserves a break, and because we all cannot afford to travel out of the country, domestic travel presents a great opportunity for change of scenery without ‘burning a hole’ in your pocket.
6. The activities of domestic tourists create economic importance as the money spent on domestic tourism feeds back into that particular country’s economy; providing itself with a more viable and prosperous economy
7. Preserving heritage. Tourism can help protect and finance the preservation of historic and heritage sites that serves as tourist attraction, and even prompt the creation of new community initiatives.
8. Preserving the wildlife and enhancement of conservation of natural resources. Tourism can help protect and revitalize wildlife through preservation programmes against illegal poaching and creates conservation jobs for the natural vegetation and endangered species.
9. It provides a reliable market throughout the year.
10. Stimulates infrastructure development, and contributes to gross domestic product.
11. Socioculturally, tourism has been touted as a path for fostering peace and understanding among communities, in addition to boosting international relations.

In recent years, the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) has developed strategic marketing campaigns targeting the domestic tourism market alongside foreign tourism marketing. The board initiated the Magical Kenya and Tembea Kenya campaigns to motivate domestic visits to the various diverse attractions in the country. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has also maintained low conservation (park entry) fees for Kenyan citizens.

Kenya is endowed with diverse natural, economic and cultural resources suitable for developing custom-designed tourism products and packages. Aside from the common destinations to the Kenyan beaches and Safaris, there are so many areas to explore in this beautiful country, including; visit to cultural sites, natural features in the Great Rift Valley, hiking, birds watching, escarpments, sand dunes, craters and gorges like those of Hell’s Kitchen Marafa, waterfalls and so on. Anyone can visit at very minimal cost.

While there is no recent data on the impact of domestic tourism on the Kenyan Economy, the number of local tours and travel companies have increased tremendously in the recent years. You should also see the throngs of people and buses in Nairobi every weekend for those going for a day or 2 of excursions.

https://www.tourism.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DOMESTIC-TOURISM-POLICY-BRIEF.pdf

https://wttc.org/Portals/0/Documents/Reports/2018/Domestic%20Tourism-Importance%20Economic%20Impact-Dec%2018.pdf