Assessment of Domestic Events Management Strategies in Promoting Sustainable Tourism as a Catalyst toward Fostering Peace and Cohesion in Kenya

Abstract

Events sector is one of the segments under the umbrella of tourism and constitute meetings, conferences, incentive travel, exhibitions and corporate events. Events tourism is the fastest growing global sector of the tourism market at a rate of 8-10% per annum. Most developed countries have integrated the events sector into their economies and Kenya has earmarked events as a potential sector that can increase the country's income and at the same time foster peace and cohesion among its citizen. Domestic tourists market in Kenya is still lagging behind due to : perceptual issues, infrequent seasonality, limited complementing facilities, highly priced services, and low level of promotional efforts and lack of sustainable practices.  The purpose of this study was to assess the domestic events management strategies for promoting sustainable tourism, as a catalyst toward fostering peace and cohesion in Kenya. The study was conducted in 5 and 3 star hotels'. Field research based and adopted both quantitative and qualitative research design. The sample size comprised of 105 respondents and the response rate was 70.7 percent. The respondents included 15 banquet managers and 15 food and beverages managers obtained through a purposive sampling. 75 domestic tourists participated and were selected through simple random sampling technique. A paired samples t-test failed to reveal a statistically reliable difference between the mean Average Conference Length and the strategies utilized in conference's cost reduction (t = 0.120). The Fisher test (F=129.48) showed that there is strong correlation in management strategies for promoting sustainable tourism and the increase in domestic events for the hotels' facilities. Researcher recommends marketing using traditional media as a promotional strategy.