Valorising our tourism sector

To ponder and admire Kenya’s commitment to tourism and the dividends it draws from that sector is certainly not the work of an idle mind. Long before independence tourism had not just survived, it had blossomed.

Indeed that country has survived largely on tourism. No doubt Kenya is blessed with those potentials and their success story in this sector does not only rest on the availability of the potentials, but more so, on their ability to harness and valorise this potential.

If we decide to cite Kenya as an example of how we can streamline our resources towards the revamping of our tourism sector, it is because the very potentials that make the sector vibrant in Kenya abound with us right here.

And all we need to do is to keep asking the question, why Kenya is succeeding where we are merely scratching the surface in the sector that occupies second place after oil in most economies.

The answers to these questions can only come from those who manage the sector – the tourism ministry on the one hand and related services playing their roles in the process.

Today, even the little efforts that have been put in the sector is being seriously threatened by the ever growing attacks by Islamic extremists in the northern part of the country, which the authorities had portrayed as the only area that has the most attractive tourist sites. The Waza Park has virtually become a no-go-area.

Although the National Tourism Council which met recently, seemed contented with the hosting of about one million tourists last year, we however think this figure is not commensurate with the potentials that make Cameroon a real tourist attractive country.

Our failure in this sector is that our touristic sites are being deliberately neglected, or that we have not been doing our home work as it would be expected. Even some of those old sites that used to provide the leisure that tourism is all about, have been abandoned, particularly those in the North West and South West regions.

Our mountains and valleys, rivers and lakes, our sandy shores and romantic flora, our culture and legendary hospitality, have been denied the exposure they deserved in selling the image of a country that lacks nothing to please even the most wounded mind.

Our embassies abroad have not helped the situation either. They have not been able to do effective marketing of those values that nature and the environment link with mankind.

The ministry of culture has not made any efforts to produce video clips of our cultural heritage to be advertised in foreign television channels.

A long list of lapses accounts for our failure to sustain this sector. Back on the ground, excessive police checks have equally painted a negative picture of certain freedoms that tourists would expect to enjoy.

The truth is that tourism is a vital source of income for our economy.

Cameroon relying on the export of crude products like cocoa, coffee, banana and oil to a certain extent, alternative sources need to be sought. The recent dramatic drop of oil prices added to the instability of world prices of our export commodities are brutal reminders that we have to do more in areas like tourism.

This is where a well organised tourist sector would just as well have filled the gap. The answer therefore, why Kenya is succeeding where we are failing is that, Kenya has allowed no loopholes in their tourism sector. It is a lesson to learn. Let’s therefore, valorise this very important sector of our economy.