Western Kenya Tourism Circuit stakeholders are looking to leverage the region’s tourism strength to the fullest.
Lake Victoria Tourism Association Chairman Dedan Ochieng said there is need for stakeholders and county and national governments to work together to benefit from the region’s tourism potential.
Mr Ochieng said tourism potential in the circuit has not been fully tapped and needs concerted effort to address some of the bottle necks that drag the sector behind.
“We must think together, we must identify challenges and work towards defeating them so that we can take tourism sector the region to a higher level,” he said.
He said that other counties are doing tremendously in managing their tourism potential and wondered why counties within the Western circuit are lagging behind.
Speaking in Kisumu on Friday during a stakeholders meeting on ways of maximising tourism potential in the region, Ochieng said locals must also benefit from the tourism sites amidst them.
Keziah Odemba, a director from the Directorate of Tourism in the Ministry said the government is keen to preserve tourism attraction in areas that are frequented by tourists.
Mr Odemba announced that the Kenya Tourism Board is keen on marketing the country’s potential as a way of attracting more tourists in the country.
“Mombasa and Narok are doing wonderfully good and the government is doing every effort to preserve tourism potential in those regions, besides that there is an ongoing diversification of tourism in other areas,” she said.
She said the government is promoting tourism diversification to maximize the sector.