The Zonation & Visitor Use Scheme makes
provision for the establishment of several new
accommodation
facilities in the Low Use Zone, as a crucial part
of the effort to develop the premium, high value
tourism
product that will be on offer in this zone. The
specific accommodation facilities concerned are as
follows:
Narok 1 new ecolodge (30 beds)
3 new ecocamps (18 beds each)
1 new ecocamp (18 beds)
The Zonation & Visitor Use Scheme makes
provision for the establishment of several new
accommodation
facilities in the Low Use Zone, as a crucial part
of the effort to develop the premium, high value
tourism
product that will be on offer in this zone. The
specific accommodation facilities concerned are as
follows:
Narok 1 new ecolodge (30 beds)
3 new ecocamps (18 beds each)
Trans Mara 1 new ecolodge (30
beds)
1 new ecocamp (18 beds)
The adoption of this process will ensure that the
best possible tourism investors offering the best
financial
terms to the parent county councils and likely to
develop the most appropriate tourism facilities in line
with
the LUZ‘s premium, high value tourism
product, are selected. An important aspect to the success of the
entire
tendering process is the involvement of an
interdisciplinary team at various key stages of the process
-
including tourism industry and environmental
specialists. This participation ensures that expert advice
and
guidance is available to ensure that the tendering
process results in the optimal outcome for the Low
Use
Zone tourism product, the LUZ environment, and for
the generation of revenues to the county councils.
A
tendering process that lacks opportunities for
securing this expert advice ultimately risks awarding leases
to
investors who lack the experience of operating
high value, low volume tourism facilities, or worse still,
who
simply intend to sell on the concession to the
highest bidder.
The above tourism facilities development procedure
may need modification to bring it in line with the
relevant
local government procurement procedures. However,
since the process is based on the KWS
Facilities
Development Procedures, which are in turn based on
Kenya government procurement procedures, there
are
unlikely to be any major obstacles in achieving
this.
