Tourism and the Truth: Kenya

Back in 2008, Stacey Dooley emerged as one of the stars of the BBC Three series, Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts, and since then has spent three years lifting the lid on shocking stories from the developing world. In 2010 Stacey travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she examined the plight of child soldiers, and to Cambodia to investigate the shocking world of underage sex trafficking. This time, Stacey is heading to Kenya to investigate the side of tourism that the average holidaymaker doesn't see.

Kenya is fast emerging as one of the world's hottest tourist destinations, with its beautiful beaches, luxury hotels and safaris. More and more Brits flock there every year, and with a week all-inclusive costing as little as 600 pounds it's not hard to see why. But is the influx of tourists making life hell for the locals?

Stacey begins her trip in Mombasa, where she stays in one of the many luxury all-inclusives that line Kenya's east coast. Whilst staying in the hotel she discovers that little of tourist money is filtering down to the workers, and very little money is being spent in the hotel itself. Stacey decides to leave the all-inclusives behind to see what life is like for workers away from the palm-fringed beaches.

Just down the road from the hotel strip she discovers a world of squalid living conditions and families struggling to survive, she hears stories of terrible pay and extreme lack of rights, and joins one group of workers as they hit the streets to protest.
Shocked by what she has seen and determined to do something to help the plight of the hotel workers, Stacey goes head to head with the Kenyan Minister for Tourism.

Next, she heads inland where she meets a community who are struggling to find fresh water as a result of a large scale tourist development. For centuries locals have used a large spring, but a wall constructed as part of the development has restricted access to their water source. Instead, villagers are using a small stagnant pond.

The final leg of her journey sees Stacey travel to the Maasai Mara, famous for its world-class safaris. Here she goes undercover to find out where our tourists' pounds are really ending up.