Climate Change and the Tourism Sector

The tourism sector in Kenya is highly climate-sensitive, with climate change already causing infrastructure damage and threatening key attractions. While the sector contributes less than one per cent of national greenhouse gas emissions, the document encourages businesses to adopt sustainable practices and low-carbon operations to build resilience and capture the growing market for sustainable tourism.

• Tourism is a critical economic driver for Kenya, contributing approximately 14 per cent to GDP and employing about 12 per cent of the workforce in 2011. Wildlife tourism is the dominant segment, accounting for around 70 per cent of tourism revenue.
• Climate change has already caused tangible disruptions to Kenyan tourism, including the three-day closure of the main highway to the Masai Mara National Reserve in mid-2012 due to flooding and earth movement, as well as flooding in the city of Mombasa.
• Kenya's National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) identifies several future risks to tourism, including the vulnerability of coastal and island destinations to sea level rise and storms, and the potential elimination of ecologically sensitive sites like the glaciers of Mount Kenya.
• Environmental changes are impacting wildlife patterns and health, such as the reduction of Mara River flows affecting wildebeest migration from Tanzania and a 2007 anthrax outbreak in the Samburu National Reserve caused by drought.
• The tourism sector's contribution to Kenya's national greenhouse gas emissions is low, representing less than one per cent, with emissions primarily originating from energy use and transport.

APA

Climate and Development Knowledge Network (2014). Climate Change and the Tourism Sector. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Climate-Change-and-the-Tourism-Sector.pdf

Chicago

Climate and Development Knowledge Network. Climate Change and the Tourism Sector. 2014. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Climate-Change-and-the-Tourism-Sector.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |title=Climate Change and the Tourism Sector |date=April 2014 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Climate-Change-and-the-Tourism-Sector.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climateanddevelopmentknowledgenetwork2014climate, author = {{Climate and Development Knowledge Network}}, title = {{Climate Change and the Tourism Sector}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2014}, month = apr, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Climate-Change-and-the-Tourism-Sector.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }