not regret it.

Every year, the region reports a tremendous number of tourists who visit the area especially during the holidays. The warm coastal climate makes it favorable for many whites who have winter in their country. Vacation for them is well spent in such a nice and relaxing climate. As the tourist come, they bring along changes to the city. Many are the changes indeed and they come as positive and negative .We shall first start looking at the positive ones.

One of the ways in which a country gains a world-wide name is by tourism. If foreigners go to Mombasa and they like what they find there, they return to their countries with good news of what they have seen. The number of visitors to the city will therefore end up growing since everyone will want to go and see how good the place really is. As the number grows so does the profit grow. Tourist will not only bring a good name to the city but they will also bring growth to the economy of the place as a result of increased profit. After all has been said and done and the visitors have come, gone and later said what good they have seen, awareness is created and appreciation developed for Mombasa .

Although tourism itself can disrupt or destroy ecosystems and environments, tourism can also be the very reason for conserving an unspoiled landscape otherwise susceptible to industrial development. This is so because, many of the animal park and the game reserves have been well maintained by the government because they are a tourist attraction .Various managements and tourism boards have been set up to ensure that the wild life is conserved and that they are well cared for .Other attractive scenarios around Mombasa have also not been left behind as they are also included in the maintenance list. The city has ended up being a beauty spot all thanks to tourism which has brought about its renovation and upkeep.

Tourism has promoted a better understanding between Kenya and other countries. Reason being, following their various visits to our country as tourist, they liked what they saw .A lots of those countries therefore want to come and do partnership with us. The relationship among other countries with ours has also improved because of the industry. A good example is the Chinese people. They have ventured into a lot of investments and projects in Mombasa as well as the country as a whole. If you take a look at the roads for instance, they are being built by Chinese people. As a result of good understanding, benefits like food aid, education scholarships, and financial aid is guaranteed .In times of disasters like war, help is also assured. This and many more have come as a result of the good understanding between the two countries.

Jobs! Jobs! This is all you see in the advertisement corners in Mombasa. Most of which are related to hotels, tours and travels agencies and of course the tourism sector. Due to the remarkable growth of the industry, efforts towards improving it and the services being offered has been made thus leading to employment opportunities. Game reserves for instance, are being upgraded to preserve the wildlife hence leading to game wardens being employed. Hotels do need a staff to run them mind you and the tours and travel agencies also need manpower. Security has improved too since the safety of the visitors has to be guaranteed .The police services therefore has recruited a number of new members to ensure maximum safety. All this is a form of employment in one way or another.

Improvement of the transport sector also comes along with the packages of tourism effects Mombasa. Air line industries can bear me witness when I say that they have seen a lot of change and growth since the sector started. Mombasa’s modern and attractive Moi International Airport is the coast’s gateway for growing numbers of hundreds of thousands of visitors that arrive by air every year. Since many people prefer to travel by air, the airport is always a busy place during the pickup seasons. The stout growth in the tourism sector was attributed by the stepped up marketing particularly in non-traditional markets such as China, Japan, India and the domestic market, and also the widened area covered by Kenya Airways. Some of the newly inaugurated Kenya Airways routes include Cairo-Istanbul, Bamako-Dakar, Harare-Maputo and Dubai-Guangzhou. The roads and railway sector is also not left behind since the guest prefer to use diverse modes of travelling. The government has therefore taken measures in making sure that the transport sector is well maintained thus giving the transport industry something to smile about.

Other forms of employment which includes making of carvings, African ornaments and handcrafts also have their piece of the cake .Business for them is at its peak when a lot of people come to Mombasa. Since tourists like to take something back to their homes when they visit, a lot of the ornaments and the carvings are bought. The Bobmbolulu workshops are an example of such self employed projects was founded by the Association for the Physically Disabled in Kenya (APDK). It is a major tourist attraction which consists of a Cultural Centre with 8 traditional homesteads. The Centre also runs a traditional Restaurant and entertains guests with traditional dances throughout the day. The Centre is run by the “Association for the physically disabled” and employs 150-disabled craftsmen/women who produce jewelry, hand printed textiles, wood carvings and leather crafts. As a result of tourism, business at the coast seems to be doing well.

Diverse culture and heritage has come to be accepted in Mombasa since it is what makes up the people into what they are and what they believe in. A lot of the visitors who come to the city receive a warm hospitality and entertainment as well. All this is courtesy of the unique coastal culture which goes unforgotten. Tourism has helped preserve some musical and dance traditions among the Maasai .It is this diverse and interesting practice that makes the tourists want to come back each time .Africa’s heritage as well and the various traditional practices also serve as an attraction to the city and hence leading to acceptance and appreciation of other people’s culture. Tradition, cultural practices together with heritage is like the back bone of Africa if I may say therefore once accepted and admired by the people, it is well preserved.

If you compare the current city with the old Mombasa town back when the Arabs used to settle there you will notice a huge difference. The buildings, roads, social amenities and even the lifestyle of people have changed. My focus of course is not on the lifestyle but on the infrastructure. A lot of buildings have emerged in the name of hotels which serve as the home away from home for the tourists while on their visit. Hospitals have also not been left behind since they are a basic commodity in any developing town .Schools on their side seem to be catching up because they are improving on the systems ,education and even facility .A drive around the town will definitely convince you there is definitely change and development of infrastructure.

Although so much has been said about the positive effects of the industry, there are also negative ones. Starting the negatives list is the negative effects on the environment as woods are being cut down to build hotels. Water is also being polluted by tourists since they leave dirt in the ocean like food cans when they happen to be swimming and eating in the water at the same time. The ecological system has to suffer due to progress and technology which is brought about by the tourist. When the visitors go round the game reserves to see animals, they use cars which do have huge wheels and cause soil erosion. Despite more and more ecological organizations trying to fight for the protection of the environment and hotel managers try not to damage anything with their business, the damages are too high to go un noticed .Our environment is suffering at the expenses of promoting and improving tourism.

Culture is one of the chief consumables of tourism, and the experience of unique cultures can be educational for the visitor and highly profitable for the community. However, tourism is a necessarily invasive process that thrusts traditional communities into the modern world, threatening their distinct lifestyles and cultural products. Slowly but surely the European way of living is pushing away the African style. Many have given in to their mode of dressing, walking, talking and have forgotten their roots. I am not saying that it is wrong to learn a few two or three things from our guests .In fact it is healthy since it shows that we have embraced them. All I am saying that there is a limit in doing things and a reason as well. As the saying goes too much of everything is poisonous. Change is good but once it becomes too much is becomes bad especially when it involves forgetting your origin.

Tourism employment brings new streams of income into a community, but also inhibits individuals from performing traditional tasks, making families dependent on cash income from tourism and therefore less likely to participate in time-honored work and social activities. the good old days have been long forgotten when people used go to the farm and work hard for their food .Industries like the blacksmith and the skin maker used to exist but not any more. Of course technology saved the day by making things much faster and easier for man but laziness has become the order of the day to some. Due to modern employment, not all even remember how things used to be back then and they have become so dependent on it that when the employment comes to a stop, they rather steal that go toil in the garden for food. Easy come is all people want but they seem to have forgotten that easy come, easy go.

A narcotic trafficking threatens the social fabric of coast society and of the entire country. Information from a wide range of sources indicates that narcotics trafficking has substantially increased in recent years and poses a major and growing threat. If left unchecked, this will undermine the hard-fought promise of the new Constitution, slow down economic growth, and result in enormous costs to deal with the growing number of drug addicts. Narcotics trafficking are a grave reflection of the culture of impunity which pervades Kenya. Thus, countering this problem is an essential element of broader efforts to promote reform and to bring about fundamental change in order to ensure a more stable democratic and prosperous future for all Kenyans. The youth unfortunately have ended up being victims of the drug trafficking. Since most of them have nothing to do after finishing high school, they get influenced into doing drugs a behavior they get from the some of the tourists.

The Kenyan tourism industry-the second foreign exchange earner after tea-is headed for the doldrums following persistent terrorist threats. Although the industry managed to withstand the November 2002 terrorist attacks on Mombasa s Paradise Lodge, it was dealt a severe blow by the terrorist alerts issued by the US, UK and German governments mid May. Only within a week of the issuance of the alert, the country had lost a whopping US$ 15 million. The alerts came hot on the heels of a revelation by Kenya s internal security Minister Chris Murungaru that a key member of the Al-Qaeda cell was holed up in the country, planning a terrorist attack. According to the government, Kenya was being targeted for terrorist attacks because of its friendship with the US a situation that has led the government to seek for compensation from the US, following losses incurred as a result of terror alerts. All this resulted due to the relationship between Kenya and the U.S.A which was brought about by them coming to tour the Kenyan coast.

Sex is widely understood to be part of the tourist experience whether with the other tourists or with the locals at the coast it is like a holiday romance .Sex workers also are not left behind as it is theirs to grab as the opportunity comes by. Due to the weak economy in the country, high levels of poverty and unemployment, the high turnout of tourist bring about such immoral actions with the locals. Beaches are viewed as holiday inns and exotic locales by them and it is considered to be incomplete without the sexual encounters with the local population. Many sexual workers who happen to be with the visitors do it because it is the meeting point of their different needs. Students as young as ten leave school just to go and do sex tourism because life has become too hard for them and they cannot afford education any more. As a result of all this the spread of diseases like AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases occurs.

Much of the profit leaks overseas to the developing countries. Reason being, many hotels are owned by foreign multinational chains for example: Hilton, Sheraton, and Holiday Inn. The same foreign operators arrange the holidays like: Going Places, Thompsons and the major money spent is in the home country. When it comes to food also there is an issue. Some of it is flown in from abroad to cater for fussy European tastes. Which are key positions given to foreign staff. Local hotels on their side go at a loss. Since the other big hotels have created a name for themselves, the small scale hotels will not be at the same competing level as the international ones.

Despite the fact that there are negative impacts that tourism has brought in our country, we should not forget that every cloud has a silver lining. More effort can therefore be put to encourage tourism in Mombasa. We should not take it for granted as it serves as a great contributor to our economy and growth. Packaging it and promoting it properly should be one of our actions towards progress. Tourist facilities and the country's infrastructure must be improved and the insecurity that scares some tourists away has to be dealt with as well. All-inclusive tours that leave most of the economic benefit outside Kenya have to be discouraged to avoid leaking of profits. Tourism needs to be systematically analyzed and carefully managed to control negative impacts -the government to establish a tourism monitoring unit.

Due to the many employment and business opportunities Potential investors can take full advantage of these opportunities through direct investments or joint-ventures with Kenyan entrepreneurs. Likelihood of work also exists in this sector in the construction of tourist hotels and game lodges all over the country. Kenya is a vast country with a wide range of potential tourist attractions, which have not been fully exploited. Currently, the tourism industry is mainly concentrated at the country’s coastal area and in the National Parks and game reserves. As a policy matter, the Government of Kenya is strongly committed to the regional diversification of this very important industry to other areas for some good reasons. Similarly, the potential for the domestic market has not been fully exploited.

How can the negative impacts of tourism on the area be managed? – The Kenyan government could run a campaign for tourists to educate them about the culture and beliefs. The city could put up signs of things not to wear or do. They could have a local tourist tax so that even people visiting on cruise ships or in big hotels contribute money towards schools and hospitals for the people of Mombasa. To cut down on negative impacts the government could enforce the safari vehicles to stick to a trail, so as not to disturb as many animals and to make the area that’s polluted smaller. This would leave large areas just for wildlife reserves. The government could make tourists aware of their impact through a campaign and by forcing tourists to use approved guides and trail.Looking forward, tourism is expected to remain buoyant in the medium term following the stepped up marketing campaigns.

Entertainment There are many excellent beach activities for individuals, couples and families that will keep you occupied throughout your stay. The safe and guided boat tours will take you out to the reef where you can watch the sharks swim at the lower depths. There are countless things offered by Mombasa to invigorate your sense to the core. . But if still your energy reserves are not completely exhausted then