Must say I agree with you bwanamich. There will always be those with lots of money who like luxury living who will continue to use the higher priced camps. I only wish I had a nickel though for every time I've heard from co-workers in the U.S. "how I would love to take my family to Kenya but its unaffordable". I can see what they mean. It would cost approximately $20,000.00 US dollars to take a family of four by the time you add in your air fare, park fees, accomodations, travel insurance etc. The average working person just can't afford to do it.

If someone were to open camps/lodges more reasonably priced, I think they would do extremely well. As long as people are safe and have decent food they would be content.

If you were to open a camp there and you have the choice to ask for 100 or 500 $ for the same place, I guess everyone will go for the 500$.

There is so much of a demand, they don't even need to worry about promotion (like on bushdrums).

According to the newsletter of Campi ya Kanzi, the yearly fee for establishing and maintaining a conservancy paid to the Masai community is 45 000 $. The rest is easy maths. Hence I suggest the communities better increase the fees for the camps rather than entrance fees of the park.

Carsten:

What you say makes sense now. However, after 9/11 Kenya was really hurting. Many lodges were laying off half their people because no tourists were coming. Yet they didn't think to lower their rates to encourage those who couldn't afford to come in peak season to come at a lower rate. Instead they just blamed the U.S. for their travel advisories for their poor luck.

When talking with a lot of people here, it wasn't the travel advisories that made them stay home. They were just terrified of getting on a plane! Even today people don't pay any attention to the advisories - they go anyway!