RURAL TOURISM AS A SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVE: AN ANALYSIS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LUANDA, KENYA

Resumo

For tourism to be described as rural tourism, it should mirror the characteristics that signify a rural area including small settlements, low population densities, agrarian-based economies, and traditional societies. This paper identifies the available tourist attraction facilities within the Luanda rural region in Western Kenya and addresses how the locals can participate directly in tourism entrepreneurship and management. The area under study is not well imaged, commodified, and packaged to tap the rural tourism potential of the area. The research aims to illuminate solutions for re-imagining rural area features and activities in order to make them tourist attractive and to relate rural tourism with the social, cultural, and economic elements of rural areas. In the final analysis, the identification of character as being significant for place is of critical importance for rural áreas and the notion of rurality.