The Contribution of Adventure Recreation Infrastructure Development to Rural Livelihood. A Case of Nyeri County, Kenya

Abstract

It is becoming more common for governments to acknowledge adventure tourism as a strategy for responsible and sustainable economic growth that is beneficial to all levels of the society. This is due to the fact that adventure tourism has been proven to be beneficial to the environment, as well as to the people and host economies of the destination. The aim of the study was to assess the contribution of adventure recreation development to rural livelihoods in Nyeri County. The study adopted an exploratory research design. The target population was 248050 household heads. The sample size was 384 respondents comprising of rural household heads within Nyeri County. Cluster sampling was used for the study to divide the sample size into smaller groups (the Eight sub counties in Nyeri County) while simple random sampling was used to distribute the sample size proportionally among the eight Sub Counties. Primary data was collected through questionnaires where closed-ended questions were used. On the questionnaires, all responses were collected using a 5-point Likert scale where 1 b

indicated strong disagreement and 5 indicated strong agreement with each statement. Additionally, structured interviews were administered to the respondents who had difficulties reading and writing. In this case, the questionnaire was used as interview guide. The findings revealed that adventure recreation infrastructural development significantly (10.2%) contributed to rural livelihood such as increment in employment opportunities and enabling transportation of farm produce to the nearby markets. In order to improve the rural livelihoods in Nyeri County, there is need for the national and the county governments to develop more adventure recreation infrastructure and upgrade the existing ones.