PERCEIVED CONTRIBUTION OF SPORTS FACILITIES’ ATTRIBUTES ON SPORT TOURIST DEMAND AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC BENEFITS IN NAKURU MUNICIPALITY

Abstract

Sports tourism is among the leading tourism segments which contribute to National Domestic Product (NDP) for many countries. In Kenya, the sports tourism initiatives are concentrated in the major urban centres where the sports facilities are sufficient. Sports activities in many other places that have limited capacities in sports facility development are less developed and given very minimal attention. This underdevelopment leads to uneven distribution of economic benefits from sports tourism initiatives in most of the areas in Kenya. Consequently, ineffective policies are developed which further reduce the sports tourism related benefits in many destinations. Nakuru municipality sports policy prioritizes the development of sports facilities, renovating the old ones and the use of sports as an industry for promotion and development. While the latter issues have been clearly outlined in the county policy the effectiveness of attaining these benefits has not been established. This study sought to investigate the perceived contribution of sports facilities development attributes on sports tourist demand, contribution on social and economic benefits in Nakuru Municipality. Despite of the Municipality having sports policies in place, there were no clear evidence to show the benefits harnessed from sports activities. Whereas Machakos and West Pokot counties have reported benefits such as children mobility to school, employment opportunities and place identity Nakuru Municipality remained an area of research. The objectives of this study were; to determine the perceived contributions of sports facility attributes on sports tourism demand in Nakuru Municipality, to determine the perceived contributions of sports facility attributes on sports tourism social benefits in Nakuru Municipality and to determine the perceived contribution of sports facility attributes on sports tourism economic benefits in Nakuru Municipality. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional study design with a target population of 57,282 people in Nakuru Municipality. 384 respondents were selected using cluster random sampling technique. The study was guided by the triple bottom line model developed by Hubbard (2009). Primary data was collected from the local communities, the sports tourism facility operators and owners while the secondary data was collected from the relevant books, journals and articles. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis. Categorical Regression (CATREG) was used to analyze the test variables. Significant differences were observed at p < 0.05. The results indicated that the data collected was reliable with an alpha value of r ≥ 0.7. Sports facility attributes were established to be significant in contributing sports tourism demand as indicated by their p-values; 0.00**, 0.00** and 0.00** for quality, accessibility and number of sports facilities respectively. Sports facility attributes in Nakuru Municipality accounted for approximately 58% of sports related benefits.