Developing Community Tourism as a Tool for Poverty Alleviation and Socio-Economic Development. a Case Study Of The Bukusu Community In Kenya.

Poverty alleviation and socio-economic development are crucial elements of the millennium development goals and the recently launched vision 2030 by the Kenyan government, community tourism can play a significant role towards their realization and improvement of the socio-economic welfare of the communities living in areas with immense tourism potential. The objectives of this study were therefore to find out how community tourism is helping to alleviate poverty, whether there were challenges facing development of community tourism and how local community support and participate in tourism. The information was obtained from 190 respondents, structured questionnaires were administered to 150 local residents and 20 tourists, 10 managers and 10 opinion leaders were interviewed. The main finding of this study shows that small and medium tourism enterprises create jobs and through this poor families get a source of earning. Insecurity also emerged to be another serious problem, the study revealed that the Bukusu Community supports the idea of community tourism and many are willing to take up responsibilities like local guides and interpreters. In conclusion it was established that the Bukusu region has a diversity of nature based and culture based attractions which if well developed can be used to alleviate poverty and improve socio-economic conditions of the Bukusu people. The proposed recommendation is that in order to promote sustainable tourism development, there is an urgent need for the establishment of institutional and managerial decision strategies (use of local resources, marketing and use of tourism information centers) development. Key words: Bukusu community, Community tourism, Poverty alleviation, Socio-economic development