Theme parks diversifying tourism, promoting economic growth

Kenya has been looking for ways to maintain its position as Africa’s tourism destination of choice by diversifying its tourism industry. The sector is Kenya’s second largest foreign exchange earner after the tea industry, and its contribution to the country’s GDP remains immense.

The Kenya Tourism Board has been diversifying tourism from traditional services and products like safaris and beach destinations in a bid to make the sector more resilient and self-sustainable.

The Board has been promoting business and domestic tourism as well as expanding its markets to the UK and US.

Globally, tourism is valued as a huge contributor to economy and more regions have been looking into ways of attracting both domestic and international visitors to their destinations.

Development of theme parks is one of the current trends being adopted by various markets.

The global market for Amusement and Theme Parks is forecast to reach US$44.3 billion in 2020 driven by the recovery in leisure spending, rise in international tourism and the continued growth of the middle class in emerging markets.

Theme parks are being used to diversify cities attractions for tourists and boost economies. By tapping into family tourism, theme parks are creating opportunities through investment in infrastructure, jobs creation, and tax revenues and prolonging stay by tourists.

One of the regions making use of this is Dubai, which has recorded a notable boom in the theme parks sector. This year, Dubai opened The IMG Worlds of Adventure Theme Park, which is currently the largest indoor theme park in the world.

The park cost a whopping $1billion to build and took 3 year to complete. Built on over 1.5 million square feet, the attraction has been a magnet to tourists from Asia, Africa and the rest of the world.

The destination is popular with Kenyan travelers, with over 64,000 visiting the city last year, a 19.9 percent increase over the previous year.

Dubai has been growing its tourists flow with its family packed entertainment areas, and it currently expects 6.7 million ticketed visits in 2017- according to Al Mohannad Sharafuddin CEO of Arabian Falcon Holidays.

A 2016 report by Colliers International predicted that the UAE will be admitting 19 million people a year into their theme parks by 2020 if current trends persist.

Theme parks in the UAE and other parts of the world have attracted huge investment opportunities from international entities that have continued to grow economies.

Kenya has also been taking up the trend. The country has witnessed a rapid transformation of the theme parks and amusement sector, taking them up for value addition especially in the commercial real estate sector. New generation malls like Two Rivers and Garden City Mall have made amusement parks part of their family attraction packages.

The features have continued to draw families to the establishments and growing business for local vendors and businesses.  It is also notable that theme and amusement parks in the country keep getting bigger, as they continue to attract both local and international visitors due to their low budget nature.