Stakeholders’ Level of Involvement and Achievement of Sustainability Tourism and Hospitality Industry in Kakamega County
Loading...
Date
2021-07
Authors
Ndeche, Kassim Kweyu
Kariuki, Albert
Ndubi, Edgar
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stratford Peer Reviewed Journals and Book Publishing
Abstract
Tourism is a ‘double edged sword’, while it has immense potential to accelerate socioeconomic development in a region; it can also put tremendous pressure and strain on
environment and socio-cultural ethos. The issue of sustainability thus is of great importance.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the stakeholders’ level of involvement and their
influence on achieving sustainability tourism and hospitality industry in Kakamega County.
The study adopted the mixed method design. Slovin’s formula was used to proportionately
select a sample size of 184 respondents from the target population of 349 who were enrolled
for the study. Purposive sampling was used to sample tour operator managers, HOD of tourism
training institution and managers of local NGO; census was used to sample senior county
officers in charge of tourism, senior governmental officers and hotel managers; stratified
sampling technique was used to sample registered members of local tourism association. The
research instruments used to collect primary data were structured questionnaires and interview
schedules. Data analysis involved the use of descriptive statistics where frequencies, mean and
standard deviation were used; inferential statistics was also conducted which included
correlation and regression analyses. The results were disseminated through qualitative
description and use of visual tools like tables, bars and pie-charts. It is hoped that the findings
of this study will inform policy on how stakeholders engagement influence tourism
development in a destination, contribute to the knowledge gap and create room for further
researches. The study found that stakeholders’ level of involvement had significant positive
relationship with sustainable tourism and hospitality industry (p<.05; β =1.023). Based on these
findings, the study concluded that it is important for the tourism and hospitality industry in
Kakamega County to emphasize the role of different stakeholders for its sustainability. This
study hence recommended that managements of tourism and hospitality establishments in
Kakamega County should develop a comprehensive and elaborate stakeholder’ engagement
plans aimed at enhancing sustainability of the sector in the County
Description
A Research Article in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management
Keywords
Stakeholders, Level, Involvement, Achievement, Sustainability, Tourism, Hospitality
Citation
Ndeche, K. K., Kariuki, A. & Ndubi, E. (2021). Stakeholders’ Level of Involvement and Achievement of Sustainability Tourism and Hospitality Industry in Kakamega County. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, 4(1), 107-122.