There have been major increases in visitor numbers to the MMNR over recent years, primarily as a result of the growing international recognition of the area as one of the world’s finest wildlife destinations. One of the greatest challenges now facing the Reserve is the management of these high numbers of visitors in order to maintain the area’s world-class tourism product and secure the economic benefits the area provides, while also ensuring that visitor use does not undermine the area’s exceptional biodiversity. Once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, trends in high visitor demand for the MMNR are likely to resume, and concerted management action is now needed to ensure that the benefits of tourism to the area’s financial sustainability and conservation are optimised, and that the Mara tourism brand is not undermined by overuse; this is the primary function of the Tourism Management Programme.
This aim aligns with that of the Zonation and Visitor Use Scheme, and the programme includes a number of management actions designed to implement important aspects of this scheme. For example, through improvements to the area’s visitor attractions, amenities and infrastructure, the programme’s first objective aims to enhance the tourism product on offer in the High Use and Mara River Zones, while also reducing the environmental impacts of intense visitor use in these areas. The objective includes actions for the development of specific visitor attractions and an MMNR Visitor Interpretation Centre, as well as improving the area’s game viewing track and road network, with the overall aim of improving visitor use patterns and minimising overcrowding and congestion throughout the area. In contrast, but also closely associated with the zonation scheme, the next objective aims to strengthen the regulation of visitor activities across the entire MMNR, in order to improve the quality of the visitor experience while reducing the environmental impacts from visitor use.
This will be achieved by clarifying and disseminating visitor regulations, measures to improve management of migration river crossings that come under intense visitor pressure at key times of year and strengthening visitor patrols including the deployment of Ticket Inspection Units. Also under this objective are actions to improve standards of driver/ guides in the Reserve, including the creation of a new scheme by Narok County for the licensing of local driver/ guides. The programme’s third objective shifts the focus of management attention to issues relating to the standards of visitor accommodation facilities. This objective includes actions to support the rationalisation of MMNR tourism accommodation lease arrangements, as well as the rolling out of new MMNR tourism accommodation standards for all lodges, ecolodges, ecocamps and special campsites operating in the Reserve (described in detail in Appendix 1). To ensure compliance with the accommodation standards, Narok County and MMNR management will carry out periodic accommodation audits, on commencement of implementation of the management plan and every three years thereafter.
Linked to the new accommodation standards, the management plan also recommends that Narok County introduces a new MMNR tourism accommodation licence fee (single business permit) scheme that will in future provide the principal future mechanism for the County to collect revenues from tourism facility operators in (and potentially adjacent to) the Reserve. xiii The licence fee will be determined in the annual Narok County Finance Bill and will be aligned with the category of accommodation that a particular MMNR accommodation facility falls. The objective also includes actions designed to ensure all tourism facilities are complying with national environmental impact legislation and best practice and are thereby having the minimal impact on the area’s environment. The final tourism objective addresses the improvements in tourism administration systems needed to address escalating tourism management challenges over the years ahead, and to support the successful implementation of the Zonation and Visitor Use Scheme, and in particular the new complexities to area management that this scheme implies. Actions are included to improve ticketing and revenue collection systems throughout the Reserve, to strengthen customer care and service at MMNR entrance points, and to improve communication and collaboration with tourism industry stakeholders, whose support and collaboration on a variety of issues set out in this programme and the zonation scheme remain vital for plan success.
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