Shito

Ran into a guy from the Africa Channel during my visit to Kenya for the AGOA Forum. His idea is to link tourism and culture to trade.



How about a cooking show featuring specialty foods? How about linking visits by glamorous people to historical tourism sites?


President Obama at Cape Coast Castle in Ghana

The idea, loosely expressed, is to create demand. Since some economists don't think demand can be created, I suppose more precisely we might say that demand was always there, e.g. for "nice tasting food," but that consumers just don't know that they can concoct it with a product called "shito."



Sorry, that's pronounced roughly as shih-TOH, though I fear if it ever becomes popular in Texas, it'll be something closer to SHIH-doh.

Exporting Good Thoughts

The export of pleasant memories often yields substantial revenues. But to whom?

A luxury hotel offers soft mattresses and plush furnishings meticulously maintained by legions of housekeepers and maintenance staffers. The hotel restaurant presents fine food supplied by area farms and then expertly prepared by a local kitchen staff of 20 or so, under the watchful eye of an expatriate master chef. Skillful local guides and trackers regularly receive lectures from visiting scholars to assure their presentations on photo-safaris are of the highest quality. The hotel owner is constantly expanding and remodeling using local construction crews. Visitors take home fond memories as well as, on average, perhaps $500 in locally made jewelry, crafts, and specialty coffees and teas.

The entire enterprise teeters on political stability, but generally does well.



Good for Kenya? Seems so. The trick seems to be to integrate the tourist industry solidly within the local economy.

Tea Birds

In Kenya, one sips local teas while seated in comfortable chairs. The birds pass quite close by and pose. A selection of photos from the Ol Pejeta Conservancy near Mount Kenya, and from the Masai Mara:




Sacred Ibis
Threskiornis aethiopicus
Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern


Grey Crowned Crane
Balearica regulorum
Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern


Marabou Stork
Leptoptilos crumeniferus
Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern


Marabout Stork at Ol Pejeta Conservancy


Superb Starling
Lamprotornis superbus
Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern