Marketing and Promotion of Historical Heritages for Cultural Tourism: The Case of Historic Buildings in Addis Ababa
No Thumbnail Available
Files
Date
2019-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Cultural heritage tourism is globally attractive to governments because it has demonstrated an
ability to contribute to the rejuvenation of regional and inner-city urban areas. Addis Ababa
possess historical buildings with exceptional architecture that express astonishing history of the
city. As tourism sells a beautiful experiences historical buildings and architecture in physical
form plays a significant role in cultural heritage tourism activities in urban areas. However most
of the buildings in Addis Ababa are not maintained and conserved as heritage tourism resources.
To this end, the thesis was intended to explore the marketing and promotion of historical
buildings as cultural heritage tourism recourses in Addis Ababa. To achieve the objectives, the
researcher employed a mixed type of research method. Both primary and secondary data were
used to assess the marketing and promotional activities of historical buildings for cultural
heritage tourism purposes. Questionnaires were distributed to purposefully selected, one
hundred fifty (150) cultural tourists and one hundred fifty (150) tour operating firms. Key
informant interview were undertaken with seven (7) selected heritage and tourism marketing
experts. Secondary data were collected from government reports, policy documents, journals and
local research papers. In addition, personal observation was conducted to fill the gap of primary
and secondary data gathered from different sources.
The analysis of the result reveal that tourists visiting historical buildings were leisure tourists
coming independently on holidays, price around historical buildings is not expensive, from
cultural tourism sites in Addis Ababa museums are mainly included in the package tours. Tour
operators serve foreign tourists as their target market, but the finding revealed that there was
huge potential of domestic tourism. Word of mouth is the single most source of information
tourist know about historical buildings of Addis Ababa while, exhibitions, tourist information
centers, and tourist guide books were insignificant in terms of informing about the buildings.
Tour operators used websites, blogs and emails (internet) as marketing and promotional
strategy. Cultural tourists who visited historical buildings were motivated by history or learning
(curiosity) and architectural beauty of historical buildings. Cultural tourists visited historical
buildings of Addis Ababa were casual tourists but, recommended Addis Ababa as cultural
tourism destination. Unbalanced system of budgeting with the cost of heritage conservation, lack
of collaboration and lack of sufficient knowledge about historical buildings by tour operating
firms were among the barriers of marketing and promotion of historical buildings as cultural
heritage tourism recourses.
Government is recommended to manage and conserve historical buildings, facilitate and initiate
the collaboration and participation of stakeholders during the planning, marketing and
promotional stages of historical buildings as cultural tourism resources. Tour operators
recommended to diverse their target market, conduct marketing research and analysis to
understand the potential of domestic tourism, and acquire the necessary knowledge which is very
essential for marketing and promotion of cultural heritage tourism.
Description
Keywords
Historical buildings, Addis Ababa, marketing and promotion, tour operators, tourists