The overall objective of the project is to contribute to sustainable development of tourism in Kenya through promoting customer-oriented innovation and marketing of community-based tourism (CBT) to foster improvement in rural livelihoods and conservation of culture and natural environment

The specific objectives of the project are; To transfer knowledge from international best practices to provide guidance for CBT development in Kenya; To capacitate and support entrepreneurs and communities to develop customer-oriented innovation and effective partnership in CBT; To enhance sustainability of capacity building for CBT development; To enhance coordinated marketing of CBT; andTo improve enabling policy frameworks to guide CBT development on larger scale

Tourism is Kenya‘s third largest foreign exchange earner, and a major employer, accounting for about 12% of the total employment and 13.7% of GDP. Kenya’s top five long-haul markets include UK, US, Italy, Germany and France. The tourism industry is based on a diverse range of natural, social, human and physical resources, but facing challenges for sustainable development, including:
Reliance on its wilderness and wildlife - 75% of Kenya’s wildlife is in the dry lands, which are under threat of climate change. Over 80% of total visits to the Kenya’s 26 wildlife sanctuaries concentrate in 7 parks, and seasonal nature of tourism further aggregates the stress on natural resources during peaking seasons and reduces the efficiency of infrastructure and staff during the low seasons.
Lack of community participation: Communities are hardly involved in tourism development, and the control of resources is vested in a few investors. This is in contrast with the principles of sustainable tourism, which emphasise the involvement of local communities and the control of tourism resources by local communities. As pointed out in the Kenya Vision 2030, Kenya aims to be one of the top ten long-haul tourist destinations in the world, offering a high-end, diverse, and distinctive visitor experience. CBT is well positioned to contribute to achieving the aim through creating new high value niche products that enable the tourist to discover local habitats and wildlife, and celebrates traditional cultures, rituals and wisdom.

Currently most CBT ventures rely heavily on donor contribution. To enhance its sustainability and ensure its contribution to poverty alleviation, livelihood improvement, and culture and environment conservation, CBT development needs to addresses various challenges, among which include:
• Limited understanding of the market – Current CBTEs tend to be product-driven, lacking consideration of the market and the customer needs, thus forming unrealistic expectation on product development and marketing. In line with Vision 2030, SUS-TOUR will leverage future demands of tourists to guide innovation and marketing strategy development, supported by market research, inspiring tools, interactive workshops and platforms with CBT support package.
• Weak community understanding of business and challenges in partnership – As Ministry of Tourism Kenya points out, where CBT has achieved success to date this has almost invariably involved a partnership approach. However, the communities owning key resources lack experience on running business, which impedes effective partnership with private sector and independence for long-term development. SUS-TOUR develops SBPF and builds capacities of local experts that train community leaders to improve their business understanding and skills. SUS-TOUR further facilitates community leaders and entrepreneurs to switch roles in collaborative innovation and partnership formation to strengthen mutual understanding and explore effective partnership scheme.
• Weak link to the mainstream tourism– CBT as niche may risk being isolated from the mainstream products, whereas positive impacts of CBTs can only be maximized through stronger linkages with mainstream tourism, which possess stronger managerial skills and access to capital and markets. SUS-TOUR strengthens this linkage by integrating CBT support package in mainstream tourism training curriculum to motivate and capacitate mainstream tourism enterprises to explore value-adding role of CBT in their products package. Further, SUS-TOUR engages players in mainstream tourism in collaborative innovation with the communities to conceive marketable innovation and partnership. SUS-TOUR also establishes platform facilitating matchmaking between qualified CBTEs and mainstream tourism enterprises.
• Need of sustainability in capacity building– Human capital and capacity is pivotal for sustainable CBT operation and consistent training is needed. Current CBT training lacks sustainability due to personnel turnover in community, and CBTEs are underrepresented in general tourism business development training as most training organizations center around Nairobi. SUS-TOUR will ensure sustainable capacity building by developing and disseminating CBT support package, conducting training the trainer programme (ToT), and facilitating establishment of regional training branches to build capacity of communities locally.
• Inadequate marketing – CBTEs in Kenya are mostly dispersed SMEs, having little joint efforts or capacity for promotion. This limits the overall market visibility of CBTs and thus revenue generation required for long-term success. SUS-TOUR will conduct baseline survey and establish marketing committee to network CBTs, to organize and coordinate market research, to form and prioritize Go-CBT Marketing Strategy, and to build capacity and pilot selected marketing strategies. Also, CBT quality standards will be developed and applied for voluntary certification, thus enhancing recognition of CBTEs.
• Insufficient information on successful CBT ventures – Lack of shared good practices is highlighted in draft CBT framework. SUS-TOUR compiles local and global good practices based on survey, certification and research, and makes them availed on platforms and continuous training sessions.