With the current lockdown in the country two major industries have been greatly affected, both the hotel and tourism industry have been forced to be creative and even embrace technology. Ideally, people would prefer to physically be a part of outdoorsy activities but not now during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Laikipia County as an attempt to educate tourists about the world’s remaining Northern White Rhinos, Najib and Fatu the conservancy will be running classes for KSh 10,700. What will the reason be? Scientists have been trying to see how they can cushion the white rhinos from extinction and the program is meant to assist in that. Ol Pejeta Conservancy managing director Richard Vigne said: “We run a prime time virtual classroom programme where people across the globe can join in an hour every evening to meet the last two Northern White Rhinos in the planet,” The facility has lost Sh1 billion ($10 million) in revenue over the year to the virus. He added: “We aim at monetising that opportunity but the development of technology to raise revenue streams is not something that we could simply turn on just because tourism opportunities have disappeared. We can transit towards other forms of making money but that will take a lot of time because what we are facing now is an unprecedented crisis,” He also noted that the technological innovation will take time. “It takes time for people to understand the technology product and whether there is value for money. You cannot fill a hole of $10 million through technological innovations. Well, we can fill a small part of that hole, maybe, if we get lucky but it’s going to take a lot of time.” The use of technology in certain industries has been a challenge because people prefer being able to do things physically than order online or a virtual tour that they could easily access online for free and it can get quite competitive, however the new move is a positive move for this industries.
