Effects of rural tourism practices on socio-economic Development of communities living in Machakos county

Abstract

Rural tourism has grown in prominence over the last decade and is considered as a tool for revitalizing rural economies including Machakos County in Kenya. Machakos County is endowed with vast touristic resources that can be used to package rural tourism products with a view of enhancing socioeconomic development of the community in the county. Despite this, the community is still faced with socioeconomic issues at large. Previous studies have indicated positive relations between rural tourism practices and socioeconomic development. These studies, however, have mainly been done in developed economies with focus on isolated components of rural tourism yet enormous socioeconomic benefit can be realised by integrating agritourism, cultural tourism and ecotourism practices. The main objective of the study was to investigate the effects of rural tourism practices on socioeconomic development of community in Machakos County. Specifically, the study set to determine the effect of agritourism practices on socio economic development of the community in Machakos County; identify the effect of cultural tourism practices on socio economic development of the community in Machakos County; and determine the effect of ecotourism practice on socio economic development of the community in Machakos County. The study adopted a quantitative research approach with an explanatory census survey design. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 191 employees drawn from 31 targeted attraction sites in Machakos County. Descriptive statistics was used to understand the data as well as the demographic profile of the respondents. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to address the research objectives and test the corresponding research hypotheses. The study findings indicated that cultural tourism practices (β = .345, t = 3.692, p < .001), ecotourism practices (β = .342, t = 2.960, p = .004) and agritourism (β = .296, t = 4.389, p < .001) were all significant predictors social economic development among the community living in Machakos County, Kenya. The results indicate that all the three main rural tourism practices accounted for 46.8% of the variation in socioeconomic development of community in Machakos County. It was therefore recommended that Machakos county government need to strengthen partnerships with tourism stakeholders and enhance community sensitization while the local community should join in hand together with the tourism authorities to show case their products by setting up a location whereby the tourist can make a stopover and have a look at the display of their products and cultures.