Sustainable travel charity the Travel Foundation is working with UK outbound operators and tourism stakeholders in Kenya’s Maasai Mara Game Reserve to help villagers benefit from tourist visits.
The aim of the foundation’s project is to increase the share of tourism income received by the Maasai community to add to their earnings from selling curios to visitors.
Previously up to 96% of the tour fee paid by visitors for a cultural tour round these villages was retained by intermediaries and very little was passed to the villages.
Despite competing for tourists, five Maasai villages have come together to support the project in the form of the Mara Triangle Maasai Tourism Association.
The project has been launched with the help of lodge managers in the Mara Triangle. Over the next few months, the project will be working with the Maasai to improve the quality and scope of the visitors’ cultural experience.
Sue Hurdle, director of the Travel Foundation, said: “This new project addresses an issue that is not the Mara Triangle or even Kenya.
“As a charity we really endeavour to work on projects that, once successful, can be replicated in other areas around the world where similar issues exist.”