Abstract:
This research project was aimed at studying the impacts of Tourism on local culture a case study being the maasai culture in Narok county. The study was conducted within November and May 2017 and its main objectives was to establish how tourism had led to the erosion of culture, commodification of culture and negative demonstration effect. Carrying out the study was important because it would assist in the preservation of culture hence creating a morally upright nation. On the other hand, information acquired from the study would be of great help in providing knowledge to key players in the tourism industry as well as acting as a guide for establishment of tourism facilities in a way that will not affect culture negatively. The study was also to equip learning institution who would later on use the information to educate others on the importance of culture. The study adopted the case study design under the qualitative research approach to gather information while targeting Narok County whereby the researcher mainly dealt with the Maasai people living in Narok town and areas surrounding the Maasai Mara Game reserve at the Sekenani Gate. On the sampling design the study used non probability sampling technique under which judgmental and purposeful sampling was used to gather data. The study administered the interview by use of structured/opened ended type of interview to gather information and applied the test retest method and external validity in order to establish the reliability and validity of the instruments used to collect data. Once the data was collected the study used coding to analyze and interpret the data. This helped in coming up with major findings that showed despite tourism being a major key player in the economy, it had negative impacts and effects on culture. As clearly seen, the Maasai culture is one of the richest culture in the world but due to overreliance on tourism the culture had lost most of its components therefore leading to the erosion of culture, commodification of culture and negative demonstration effect. The study recommended that training and education was essential, creation of employment, community participation, development of infrastructure and making of laws and policies to govern tourism activities was essential if enhancing the sustainability of culture was to be achieved.
