Vulnerability of Kenya’s wildlife tourism sector performance to the impacts of climate change. A literature review

Abstract

This paper reviews published English language literature on vulnerabilities of Kenya’s wildlife tourism sector performance to the impacts of climate change. About 70% of tourism in Kenya is nature based and mostly wildlife based. On the other hand climate change has become one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. In the last two decades a lot of research has emerged on climate change and tourism. However most researchers have tended to focus on the vulnerabilities of general tourism sector to the impacts of climate change with very few if any focusing specifically of the vulnerabilities of wildlife tourism sector performance to the impacts of climate change in Kenya. To address this gap this paper uses an exploratory literature review method to expose the vulnerabilities of the wildlife segment of tourism to the impacts of climate change. The study looks at the climate change vulnerabilities to the four important segments of wildlife tourism. These segments are the accommodation sector, the tourists, the wildlife and the communities. The review reveals a dearth of empirical evidence in this area. The review points out that most of the research has tended to focus mostly climate change vulnerabilities in the agricultural sector and ecosystems while the few that looked at tourism tended to be very general and mainly focused on adaptations, yet understanding of vulnerabilities is supposed to inform development of adaptations. The review also reveals methodological shortcomings notably reliance on perception data as opposed to assessment of real impacts.