The Influence of Event Tourism Motivation On Job Creation for The Local Community in Isiolo North Constituency

Abstract

Event tourism involves traveling to attend or participate in major one-time or recurring functions of limited duration. In the present study, the contribution of event tourism on job creation was carried out in Isiolo North Constituency. The purpose of the study was: to establish the influence of motivation for event tourism on creation of tourism-related jobs for the local community. The key indicators of motivation being social and organizational drivers. The study employed descriptive survey design. The target population of the study was 49086 which represented the adult community members, seven tourism officers and 71 hotel managers. The sample size was 409 that comprised 380community members, seven tourism officers and 21 hotel managers. The data was collected using structured questionnaires and interview schedules. The data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and logistic regression. The results indicated that about an equal number of community respondents were engaged in tourism related jobs as were in non-tourism related jobs. The largest percentage of community respondents agreed that social drivers were contributor towards promoting tourism related occupations while the least were neutral. For example, amongst community household heads 41% agreed that seeking personal rewards promoted creation of tourism related jobs,36% disagreed and 23% were neutral. For organizational drivers, there was an equal distribution amongst community respondents for those in agreement and those not in agreement that the drivers contributed to the jobs, with the least percentage being neutral. 305 Forexample,36%and35%agreedanddisagreedrespectivelythatprofitfortheorganizationpromoted tourism related jobs, while 29% were neutral. A logistic regression result showed that motivation had no statistically significant influence on creation of tourism related jobs in the community (social drivers p=0.318, and organization drivers p=0.806). The study recommended that locals should be encouraged to invest in event tourism related opportunities.