INFLUENCE OF DESTINATION BRAND IMAGE AND STAKEHOLDERS’ ROLE ON WILDLIFE PARKS’ ATTRACTIVENESS IN THE AMBOSELI-TSAVO ECOSYSTEM, KENYA

Abstract

Wildlife-based tourism significantly contributes to Kenya's tourism industry, particularly through attractions like the Big Five: elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo, and leopard. In 2019, the tourism sector directly contributed 8.8% to Kenya’s GDP, amounting to KES 790 billion (USD 7.9 billion), and created over 1.1 million jobs, representing 8.3% of the national job market. Despite the extensive protected areas in the Amboseli-Tsavo Ecosystem, visitor numbers remain suboptimal, limiting its socio-economic potential. This study explores how destination brand image and stakeholder roles influence the attractiveness of wildlife parks in this ecosystem. Using an embedded mixed-method research design, data were collected from 440 park visitors, 54 tourism managers, and 28 tourism experts through stratified, convenience, and purposive sampling. Reliability was tested using Cronbach’s Alpha, and data analysis involved descriptive statistics, regression analyses, and thematic analysis. Findings showed that cognitive, affective, and conative images significantly influence park attractiveness, explaining 49.9% of the variance. Park visitors rated the parks highly in terms of beauty, likelihood of revisiting, attractiveness, and overall satisfaction. The study recommends robust monitoring and evaluation to enhance marketing efforts and suggests further research on destination competitiveness and stakeholder collaboration.