Pattern of Local Participation in Tourism Business Supply in Kisumu County and its Implication on Tourism Impact on Poversty

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish the pattern of local participation in tourism supply businesses and its implication on local poverty reduction. The specific objective of the study included finding out the key commodities that are important drivers of tourism backward linkage with local economy of Kisumu County, establish the average score profile among local suppliers, and finding out the main dimensions along which they are differentiated. The study adopted a cross sectional and correlational design in which stratified random sampling of 106 tourism enterprises from a target population of 266 registered was obtained. Self – administered questionnaires were distributed to managers and collected by researcher. The first, second and third objective were analyzed using descriptive statistics, MANOVA and descriptive discriminant analysis respectively. It was found out that while poultry product, fish, beef and detergent were the main commodities in the trade between local suppliers and tourist industry, fish ,beef and detergents were the most consumed commodities. Secondly, suppliers were different in their mean score profiles by value and quality of their supplies, promptness in their delivery of supplies and in longevity in commercial relationships with the tourist industry. Lastly, suppliers were differentiated along two main dimensions: the first dimension was interpreted to be effectiveness and efficiency, being represented by high value of weekly supplies, and high rating on promptness in making deliveries. The second dimension was experience, which was indicated by suppliers` education level and their longevity in commercial relationship with the tourist industry. The key contribution of this study is the creation of understanding of the main commodities driving tourism backward linkage with local economy and factors which confer competitive advantages among local traders of Kisumu County in tourist industry.