Events and Tourism Review June 2021 Volume 4 No. 1 Sports Tourism Events and Socio-economic Well-being of the Host Communities: Motivations and Benefits from an Emerging Destination Lilian Wanyonyi Joseph M. Njoroge Richard Juma Murang’a University of Technology Correspondence: [email protected] (L. Wanyonyi) For Authors Interested in submitting to this journal? We recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five- step process. For Reviewers If you are interested in serving as a peer reviewer, please register with the journal. Make sure to select that you would like to be contacted to review submissions for this journal. Also, be sure to include your reviewing interests, separated by a comma. About Events and Tourism Review (ETR) ETR aims to advance the delivery of events, tourism and hospitality products and services by stimulating the submission of papers from both industry and academic practitioners and researchers. For more information about ETR visit the Events and Tourism Review. Recommended Citation Wanyonyi, L., Njoroge, J. M. & Juma, R. (2021). Sports Tourism Events and Socio-economic well-being of the Host Communities: Motivations and Benefits from an Emerging Destination. Events and Tourism Review, 4(1), 30-42. Events and Tourism Review Vol. 4 No. 1 (2021), 30-42, DOI: 10.18060/24924 Copyright © 2021 Lilian Wanyonyi, Joseph M. Njoroge and Richard Juma This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Wanyonyi, L., Njoroge, J. M. & Juma, R. (2021) / Events and Tourism Review, 4(1), 30-42. 31 Abstract Travel and tourism industry has been considered as a major catalyst for local community development. As an alternative way of involving the host community in tourism activities directly, sports tourism aims to enable the hosts to earn income. Host community is an important stakeholder in tourism, their wellbeing is directly proportional to sustainable tourism. Nairobi city has hosted several sports tourism events for decades, but little has been documented on how such events promote the socio-economic wellbeing of the host community. This research sought to put sports tourism events into limelight by looking at the perceived motivational factors behind hosting of sports tourism events and to assess the socio-economic benefits of hosting sports tourism events. A cross-sectional research design was used in the study with a total of 404 respondents. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data from informants in three stadia. Descriptive, thematic analysis and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The major motivating factors for hosting sports tourism event were good infrastructure, expected benefits and availability of accommodation facilities. The main benefits of hosting sports tourism events were identified as employment opportunities and increased trade for local businesses. A number of recommendations were made. Keywords: Sports Tourism Events, Community, Sustainable Development Introduction The travel and tourism industry is among the highly developing sectors in the world experiencing a growth in tourists’ numbers, huge employment opportunities and huge investments. WTTC (2018) established that, the travel and tourism industry brought US$8.8 trillion to the economy worldwide this equating to 10.4% of global GDP. It contributes to more than 319 million jobs annually, representing 10.0% of all employment worldwide. In most developing nations, it has turned out to be a major driver of social and economic progress. Kenya receives the largest number of international tourists each year followed by Uganda and Tanzania. Tourism contributes about 10% of the Gross Domestic Product in the country each year (KIPPRA Report, 2018). Tourism arrivals in 2018 were recorded at 2,029,206 and ksh 157 billion tourism receipts (KTB report, 2018) thus making the tourism industry a major backbone of the economy. However, the increased poverty levels are still evident in different parts of the country which has been associated with unequal distribution of tourism benefits (Kieti & Akama, 2007). In Kenya, 36.1% of the population still live below the poverty line compared to other African countries like Ghana and South Africa (World Bank Report, 2018). In its Vision 2030 blueprint, tourism in Kenya is a major pillar that the government has prioritized as a way of alleviating the poverty index and providing economic growth. The country aims to focus on niche tourism products and to be among the leading destinations globally providing quality, diversified and unique tourists’ experiences than her competitors GOK, (2008).To achieve this, the country has come up with different development projects among them the launching of Kenya National Tourism Blueprint 2030 that has strategies on product diversification to boost its tourism profile globally and the initiative to build state of the art stadia across the country that will boost Kenya’s ability to bid and host regional and international sports Events and Tourism Review Vol. 4 No. 1 (2021), 30-42, DOI: 10.18060/24924 Copyright © 2021 Lilian Wanyonyi, Joseph M. Njoroge and Richard Juma This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Wanyonyi, L., Njoroge, J. M. & Juma, R. (2021) / Events and Tourism Review, 4(1), 30-42. 32 tourism events. This will be a focal point in improving the quality of lives local people’s lives (GoK, 2013). Sport and tourism has become a vital element of tourism in Kenya. The country has actively participated in local, regional and international sporting tourism events that has given it popularity. For instance, Kenyan sports men and women have often performed exceptionally globally during events. The country has also attracted renowned world sport stars who have helped to promote and boost sports talents in the country. Kenya has frequently hosted numerous spectacular sports tourism events like the annual Standard chartered Marathon, Lewa Marathon, the IAAF championships, KCB Safari rally, the cricket Championships, Rugby Safari Sevens Series, Confederation of Eastern and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA) Championships and Open golf championships which have attracted both local and international participants (Ng’oriarita, 2013). Nairobi County is a hub of tourism in Africa. The county is enriched with both cultural and natural tourism attractions such as Mamba Village, Karen Blixen Museum, Nairobi National Park, Giraffe Centre and Bomas of Kenya. Since the inception of devolution, the county has bid and hosted some spectacular sporting events which include the annual Rugby Safari Sevens Series, IAAF World under 18 Championships, AFCON qualifiers championships, African Volleyball Championships, Ice Stock Sports Africa, WRC Safari Rally, East Africa military games and African Deaf Athletics Championships. The city has several stadia that host different events which have made the city ideal for sports enthusiasts. Despite hosting these events, it is unclear whether the host community in Nairobi gains from the events. Hosting of sports tourism is regarded as part of community development but there exists dearth of studies basing on this within the Kenyan Context. The link between sports tourism and counties is still under researched (Njoroge et al, 2017). Furthermore, Peric (2018), Herbold, Thees and Philipp (2020), and Boonsiritomachai and Phonthanukitithaworn (2019) opine that the host community is important in any tourism process and no form of tourism should be held at the expense of the locals. To sum up, Wise 2016, argues that most research have put focus on events while the focus on the host community is missing. From this basis, the study will endeavor to fill this knowledge gap by addressing key concern in Kenyan perspective. Devolution and growth of sports events tourism in Kenya Devolution refers to a decentralization of political powers and economic resources to the local divisions. The Kenyan Constitution in 2010 enshrined devolution. The constitution enabled the formation of forty-seven counties that are governed independently (Khaunya, Wawire & Chepng‘eno, 2015). County governments have continued to strive towards promoting economic welfare to improve the GDP of the country. According to World Bank report (2019), county governments contribute 5.7% of the overall GDP in the country. Tourism is among the sectors that have attracted the attention of these devolved units as they have realized the benefits of its promotion. Devolution has opened up remote places through equitable allocation of resources to the counties. These counties have embarked on mapping of tourism resources, tourism product development and marketing. As a way of developing tourism products, some counties have been at the forefront of developing sports facilities that have made them host spectacular sports events. Njoroge, Atieno and Nascimento (2017) pointed out that, with a centralized system of governance, tourism developments in some parts of Kenya were disregarded, a priority was given to the coastal region because of the serene beaches and wildlife. However, these led to a lack of diversification in tourism products offered by the country. They further explained that the counties have led to the development of new destinations with diverse tourism products which have enabled