Abstract:This article explores the role of tourism in the development plans of Kenya during the 1960s and 1970s, examining what this reveals about the new opportunities and constrictions that officials encountered as they tried to globally reconfigure the place of their new decolonizing nation in the post-colonial world. These themes are explored by examining the political economy of development and tourism, the marketing infrastructures that Kenyan officials created to shape how Western consumers thought about “Kenya,” and how these factors influenced the kinds of discourses that were promoted globally about this newly-independent African country.
The political economy of tourism development: A critical review
