Comparative Study of the Performance of Selected Local Tourism Business Operations in the Economy of Kisumu/Kenya: A Multivariate Analysis of Variance and Discriminant Analysis

Accommodation sector is important in the transmission of tourism economic impacts to destinations` economies. Though a number of studies have been done on the role of quality accommodation in enhancing competitiveness and growth of tourism in different destinations, little information exist on the relative performance of different types of tourism businesses in the local economy. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to find out whether tourism enterprises were different in their performance in the local economy of Kisumu County and analyze factors contributing to the differences. Thus, a cross section survey of 106 randomly selected tourism enterprises was conducted and data collected using self-administered questionnaires. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to determine performance differences in groups of tourism enterprises and descriptive discriminant analysis was used to find out pattern in their differences. It was established that there were differences in performance among tourism enterprises and that the key factors contributing to their differences were the number of suppliers they engaged in a week and in their expenditure on locally produced inputs as proportion of their total expenditure. It was concluded that right balance be struck in facility investments with some bias towards guest houses, clubs and restaurants.