A Content Analysis of Tourism Programs in Promoting Domestic Tourism in Ethiopia: Fana TV’s Guzo Ethiopia in Focus

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Date

2020-07

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AAU

Abstract

The predominant purpose of this study was to critically analyze the strategies of the local media in promoting the domestic tourism of Ethiopia. Thus, it has tried to observe how the themes of tourism programs are framed in order to grab the attention of the local audience. It has also tried to find out the challenges encountered in promoting the various tourist sites in the country to the local audience. For this purpose, the weekly Guzo Ethiopia program of Fana TV was chosen. To find available data, both qualitative and quantitative data instruments were employed. The qualitative instruments were content analysis and in-depth interview. Nine Guzo Ethiopia programs broadcasted from April 2019 to April 2020 were chosen in a stratified random method for content analysis; and four purposively chosen key informants (three program producers and a content editor) were interviewed. Quantitative questionnaires were also filled by 55 audience members. Mainly, the audience respondents and key informants were questioned in order to find out about the success of the strategies of our media in promoting domestic tourism. Then, the challenges of the Guzo Ethiopia program were discussed in order to find out what keep the program from hitting its objective. Results obtained through both qualitative and quantitative methods have indicated the researcher that Fana TV‟s Guzo Ethiopia is promoting our hidden tourist sites to the local audience through catchy content and good production quality. Coverage of unique undiscovered sites and topics, as well as use of rich language can be noticed in most of the episodes. Different styles of presentation like stand ups, first person point of view narration, one-man interview, historical narration, and others have been put to use. While some necessary information like how to get to the places covered are seen to be missing in some of the episodes, the program as a whole can be argued to be a coherent and well-organized program. Lack of human resource and lack of budget have been found to be major obstacles. Because of the less attention given to domestic tourism, and the high production costs of tourism programs on TV, promising programs find it difficult to continuously stay on air. Based on these findings, different recommendations were made to our various flourishing media, the government and private sponsors to support programs like this to contribute to the growth of our domestic tourism, which has proven to be a base for a developed international tourism in many countries.The predominant purpose of this study was to critically analyze the strategies of the local media in promoting the domestic tourism of Ethiopia. Thus, it has tried to observe how the themes of tourism programs are framed in order to grab the attention of the local audience. It has also tried to find out the challenges encountered in promoting the various tourist sites in the country to the local audience. For this purpose, the weekly Guzo Ethiopia program of Fana TV was chosen. To find available data, both qualitative and quantitative data instruments were employed. The qualitative instruments were content analysis and in-depth interview. Nine Guzo Ethiopia programs broadcasted from April 2019 to April 2020 were chosen in a stratified random method for content analysis; and four purposively chosen key informants (three program producers and a content editor) were interviewed. Quantitative questionnaires were also filled by 55 audience members. Mainly, the audience respondents and key informants were questioned in order to find out about the success of the strategies of our media in promoting domestic tourism. Then, the challenges of the Guzo Ethiopia program were discussed in order to find out what keep the program from hitting its objective. Results obtained through both qualitative and quantitative methods have indicated the researcher that Fana TV‟s Guzo Ethiopia is promoting our hidden tourist sites to the local audience through catchy content and good production quality. Coverage of unique undiscovered sites and topics, as well as use of rich language can be noticed in most of the episodes. Different styles of presentation like stand ups, first person point of view narration, one-man interview, historical narration, and others have been put to use. While some necessary information like how to get to the places covered are seen to be missing in some of the episodes, the program as a whole can be argued to be a coherent and well-organized program. Lack of human resource and lack of budget have been found to be major obstacles. Because of the less attention given to domestic tourism, and the high production costs of tourism programs on TV, promising programs find it difficult to continuously stay on air. Based on these findings, different recommendations were made to our various flourishing media, the government and private sponsors to support programs like this to contribute to the growth of our domestic tourism, which has proven to be a base for a developed international tourism in many countries.

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tourism programs

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