Competitive Strategies Among Tour Operators in Kenya

Abstract

Although tourism industry in Kenya faces a myriad of challenges emanating from the external environment such as competition from other countries with tourist attraction sites such as South Africa, tour operators in Kenya are an important player in the tourism industry. Given their important role in ensuring that tourists have a good time while in Kenya, it is paramount that they devise strategies that ensure flow of tourists in the country. The strategies so devised need to ensure that in cases of low and high seasons, tourists flock the tourist destinations. This has seen some tour firms concentrate not only on the foreign market but also on the domestic market. This area of study has not received attention from scholars as it deserves. The objectives of the study were to assess the extent to which flow of tourists is a challenge facing tour operators in Kenya, to identify the competitive strategies tour firms are using to maintain flow of tourists in the country and also to establish whether the flow of tourists among tour firms in Kenya is related to the competitive strategies. The study used descriptive survey design. The researcher sampled 68 tour operators who are members of the Kenya Association of Tour Operators (KATO. The data was collected using a questionnaire that consisted mainly of closed-ended and open-ended questions. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. It was coded in the SPSS program for windows. From the findings, the study found that the tourist firms in Kenya faced challenges in economic environment, but it adopted some strategies such as adpting to the new technology and reducing the operational staff to adopt to these challenges. The study also found that tour firms are also employing extensive technology and also maintaining.