This archive report was first published on 13 August 2019.
Kenya is set to gain a deeper understanding of its tourism industry's economic impact with the development of a new tool, the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA).
According to the Tourism Research Institute (TRI), the agency behind the TSA, the tool will provide valuable insights into the contribution of tourism to the country's wealth, including tourist spending patterns and job creation.
"Since the accounts distinguish the numbers and expenditure of different tourist markets by origin, the yield contribution measures can be developed per tourist and by source market," said TRI.
By providing information on who is supplying goods and services to tourists and how demand is being met, the TSA will enable the government to measure the multiplier effect of tourism expenditure on the whole economy.
"It is possible to establish the economic importance of tourism for each category of products that are consumed and also for each activity that results in the production of goods and services for the visitors," TRI added.
Currently, official data only provides figures on activities such as visitor arrivals, hotel bookings, and bed occupancy, but not an aggregate contribution of tourism to the economy.
However, data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that the number of international visitor arrivals increased by 14 per cent from 1.77 million in 2017 to 2.03 million last year, pushing up the sector's earnings by 31.2 per cent to Sh157.4 billion in 2018.
