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.
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