Global Change and Sustainable Mountain Tourism: The Case of Mount Kenya - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 194

Table 8.1. SWOT Analysis.

Strengths
Unique mountainous setting for mountain
climbing
Abundant and diverse wildlife populations
for sight seeing
UNESCO Heritage Site Status
Highly experienced campsite operators, tour
operators and guides
Numerous rivers for sport fi shing
Eco-friendly experience
Proximity to capital city of Nairobi attracts
business travellers

Weaknesses
Stiff competition among operators
Operators not taking full advantage of
unique attractions such as landscape
No branding of products
Poor transport and other infrastructure
Poor marketing including limited web
marketing strategy

Threats
Aging population in source markets
High cost of operating campsites
Melting of snow and drying of rivers due
to global warming and climate change
Insecurity especially in remote campsites
Illegal/unlicensed campsite and tour
operators
Illegal logging destroying wildlife habitats

Opportunities
Untapped adventure tourism potential
Internet technologies and online marketing
Environmental awareness of tourists
Interest in cultural tourism
Increasing demand for adventure tourism
products worldwide
Increasing number of women campers
Special events such as Lewa Marathon

Source: Compiled by author 2011.

and rugged mountain peaks are the major tourist attraction, drawing close
to 20,000 climbers annually (KWS 2011). Several routes for climbing the
mountain have been developed (Fig. 8.4). Mt. Kenya National Park located
on the mountain slopes is a high altitude Park with abundant wildlife and
rare fauna and fl ora species. Its unique geological structure and ecology
earned the mountain the UNESCO Heritage Site status in 1997 giving it
a competitive edge over many other national parks and game reserves in
the country.

Weaknesses

The Mt. Kenya Porters and Guide Safari Club is a community-run tour
business. Most of these businesses lack basic facilities to run their marketing
activities (Kariuki 2005). With the marketing of tourism moving into the
information age, community groups are clearly disadvantaged. Most of
them only have e-mail addresses as their contact to the world outside
their villages and even then, these are not often used due to limited
internet services which can only be accessed in major nearby towns such
as Nyeri, Nanyuki, Meru or Embu. Therefore, the greatest challenge facing
the community tour business is marketing themselves to both local and
international tourists, as they do not have the required infrastructure
(Kariuki 2005).