Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management
http://repository.dkut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/21
Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management2024-03-29T11:00:21ZEffects of the Informal Street Food Vendors on the Nyeri Town Publics
http://repository.dkut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/8438
Effects of the Informal Street Food Vendors on the Nyeri Town Publics
Misiko, Asborn Juma; Kisiang’ani, Rodgers Isaac; Githiomi, George M.; Kimamo, Mary W.; Gituma, Zippora N.
Nyeri town boasts of informal street food vendors found almost in every street, offering
products ranging from indigenous to trendy cuisines. During evening hours, the
informal street food operators compete for the street space with the town publics. The
design and the size of the town’s major streets have not been reviewed to
accommodate the increasing informal street food vendors and the growing urban
community. This study investigated the effects of the informal street food vendors’
location, products, operating time and modus operandi on the urban community in
Nyeri town. The researchers combined the Neo-Marxist theory-positing that the
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informal sector expands as urbanization increases, and the Neo-liberal theory –arguing
that entrepreneurs pursue informal sectors in order to operate outside the official
business frameworks to explore the subject of the study. Using the cross-sectional survey
design, the study adopted the enumeration and convenience sampling techniques to
select vendors and consumers respectively that responded to questionnaire
administered face-to-face. The qualitative data was analyzed using the thematic content
analysis, and the output transformed into quantitative data to give percentages and
frequencies. The informal street ventures inconvenienced street users especially during
rush hours. The food related wastes and a cocktail of food aroma made the street
ambiance less attractive. The equipment used on the streets and the unsecured fire
points posed a great risk to the public. The study concludes that the informal street
foods ventures provide employment that sustains livelihoods. The informal street
businesses facilitate the flow of resources, and promote the mainstream economies like
agriculture, retail and food manufacturing, thus contributing to wealth creation in the
county. Study recommend benchmarking to explore ways to change the perception
that the informal street foods are unsafe, unhealthy and the ventures make the street
look unattractive. In countries like Thailand in the city of Phuket, informal street foods
are conducted in an organized manner.
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZAssessment of Socio-Economic Gender Issues Affecting Women’s Participation in Alpine Tourism: A Case Study of Mt. Kenya National Park
http://repository.dkut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/8418
Assessment of Socio-Economic Gender Issues Affecting Women’s Participation in Alpine Tourism: A Case Study of Mt. Kenya National Park
Kipchirchir, Cornelius; Misiko, Asborn Juma; Kiplangat, Dennis Cheruiyot
The study sought to investigate the socio-economic gender issues affecting women's participation in alpine tourism in Mt. Kenya National Park. The study was guided by the following objectives: to assess the social gender issues affecting women's participation in alpine tourism and to analyse the economic gender issues affecting women's participation in alpine tourism. Thestudy used a descriptive research design, and data was collected through structured closed-ended questionnaires distributed to 133 women participating in alpine tourism activities. 107 questionnaires were duly filled and returned. Structured interviews were conducted with the officials of Kenya Wildlife Service and the leaders of Mt. Kenya Guides and Porters Association. Qualitative data was analysed using content analysis, and quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study established that the marital status of the female mountain crew was the dominant social gender issue affecting women's participation in alpine tourism as most guides, porters and cooks were unmarried, and for those who were married, the majority ofthem experienced challenges relating to balancing work and family responsibilities. The study also established that there is a wage disparity between men and women working as guides, porters, and cooks. The study recommends the need for policy makers to implement policies that promote gender equality in the workplace, ensuring equal opportunities for women to engage in alpine tourism activities such as guiding, portering and cooking.In addition, the study recommends the need to develop family-friendly policies which enable married women to fully participate in alpine tourism activities without compromising their family duties. The study also recommends the need for the Nyeri County Department of Tourism, Trade, Culture and Cooperative Development in partnership with Mt. Kenya Guides and Porters Association, to organise short course training on mountaineering and capacity-building programs to enhance the English language proficiency of female porters and cooks, thereby improving their communication skills and enabling them to interact more effectively with tourists. The study further recommends the need for Mt. Kenya Guides and Porters Association to undertake a sensitisation forum for its members about sexual harassment subjected to female mountain crew by men participating in alpine tourism activities.
2024-02-01T00:00:00ZManagerial Perspective of Learning Process on the Performance of Registered Hotels in Nyeri County, Kenya
http://repository.dkut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/8373
Managerial Perspective of Learning Process on the Performance of Registered Hotels in Nyeri County, Kenya
Irungu, Peter; Mwenda, Lilian Karimi Mugambi; Wachira, Anita Wanjugu
Tourism and Travel sector is essential in growing the economies and social well-being of nations. One of the
sub-sector in the center of advancing this course is hotel industry as it plays a major supportive role of ensuring
comfortable stay for the visitors through meeting their gastronomical, lodging and other related auxiliary needs.
However, the industry is usually faced with performance issues both from internal and external influences such
as economic crisis and sparling operation costs. Itthus adopts strategies to improve on its performance and
mitigate on emerging issues and challenges. Value co-creation is one of such strategy which aims at promoting
collaboration among parties involved in direct interactions so as to generate mutual value. It comprises different
components among them the learning process where parties involved in value co-creation learn from each other
thereby enriching the entire process. However most of researches in this area have focused on education sector
possibly due to affinity between learning and education. It is such gaps that has informed the current study
whose objective is to explore from a managerial perspective the effect of learning process on the performance of
registered hotels in the Nyeri County. The research specifically focused on the sections of hotel that are deemed
to be directly involved with the customer: F&B, Room Division and Sales and Marketing. The study used a
descriptive research design and had a target population of the 61 registered hotels in the county of which only
those with bed capacity of 25 and above (34 hotels) were considered as practically, they were the ones expected
have been implementing the strategy. Census method was adopted in selecting the sample size due to the low
number of registered hotels while purposive sampling was utilized in picking the respondents from the selected
hotels. Questionnaires were used for data collection and were piloted to ensure validity and reliability during
data collection. The Cronbach‟s Alpha coefficient for the instrument was 0.802 which was above 0.7 thus
ascertaining that the instrument was reliable for the data collection process. Data collected was analyzed
descriptively and inferentially with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Diagnostic test
was carried out before multiple regression analysis was carried out to measure the relationship between the
dependent variable and independent variables. The findings indicated that learning process(β1 = 0.533 p< 0.05)
had a positive relationship with significant effect on the performance of registered hotels and explained 45 per
cent variance of the performance. Based on these findings, learning process was found to have a significant
positive effect on the performance of registered hotels in Nyeri County thus concluding that hotels that
promoted the process were likely to have better performance outcomes as this would maximize value co-
creation activities.
2023-03-01T00:00:00ZBehavioral Intention in Domestic Heritage Tourism—An Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior
http://repository.dkut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/8326
Behavioral Intention in Domestic Heritage Tourism—An Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior
Osiako, Peter Onyonje; Szente, Viktória
Heritage tourist attractions are important in the diversification of tourism product offers for any competitive tourist destination. The current status of domestic heritage tourism in Kenya remains under-researched leaving many critical areas of interest requiring more research attention and redress. These needs also have to be examined in the Kenyan domestic heritage tourism context with a view to creating and satisfying higher demand for tourists. This research expands the widespread theory of planned behavior (TPB) by adding motivation and perceived safety and security as predictors of visit intention. In total, 802 respondents filled out the structured questionnaire, of which 693 questionnaires (86%) were found to be valid. The findings of this study validated the TPB with respect to heritage visitation in a domestic tourism context. It was further established that the expanded TPB model and its variables were applicable and more efficacious in directly predicting visit intention to historical heritage attractions. These results reveal the key determinants of the willingness of domestic tourists to visit historical heritage sites. Destination marketers and managers should endeavor to enhance the five psychographic aspects considered in the current study, in order to cultivate higher intentions towards visiting historical heritage sites among domestic tourists.
2024-01-01T00:00:00Z