The Co-creation Of Creative Tourism In Nairobi, Kenya

The United Nations World Tourism Organization stimulates tourism for economic growth, development and the reduction of poverty in developing countries, with the micro- small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises as a big part of this progress (Manyara & Jones, 2009; Marques, 2012; Richards & Wilson, 2007; Smith, 2003; Smith & Robinson, 2015). In Kenya, the tourism industry is one of their leading foreign exchange earners, contributing ‘’about 18% of total foreign exchange earnings and about 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) - the tourism industry therefore is of critical importance to the economy of Kenya’’ (Manyara & Jones, 2009; Kenya government, 2005). The industry is young and there is a lot of room to expand and flourish. UNESCO (2006) emphasizes the importance of tourism development in relation to the involvement of local communities. Engaging local populations can lead to stronger communities, poverty reduction, preservation of culture and improvement of new skills (UNESCO 2006; Mbaiwa, 2008). In order to realize this, a clear framework is required as well as a clear plan to realize development and community engagement. This research will be an exploratory qualitative research (which will be performed from January 2018 - June 2018). The research approach is a combination of two different types of qualitative inductive research: interviews and ethnographic field research conducted in Nairobi Kenya. I will navigate certain issues and focus on the different theoretical concepts. The found literature and the theoretical framework will be reviewed using the case study of tourism development in Nairobi and the contacts retrieved through snowball sampling. My expected results are that Value co-creation between business entrepreneurs and local communities on creative tourism is a powerful catalyst in order to realize local community improvement, empowerment and reduce poverty. I presume to find out that the value co-creation with the local community will lead to the development of creative tourism as well as a stable community, development of skills and alleviate poverty. These several factors can be of great help determining the strategy, opportunities of both business entrepreneurs located in Nairobi, Kenya as well as government or policy makers. The importance of value co-creation within creative tourism will fit into the larger understanding of the available literature where this positive causality between the local community and business entrepreneurs is indicated. The use of the qualitative case study (with interviews and ethnographic field research) will provide me with a unique insight in how the theory translates into practice.

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