Tourism Product Development Practices in Kersa Melima Woreda, South West Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State
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Date
2022-02
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In this study, tourism product development is mainly undertaken to understand the potential resources and existing products and for the improvement of tourism products. The tourism product development practice was supported with basic tourism infrastructure and services through improving and establishing accommodation in and around the destination.This study was conducted to assess tourism product development practices in Kersa Melima Woreda of the South West Shoa Zone. To achieve the intended objective of the study, a cross-sectional descriptive research and exploratory research was employed where both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed. The study's target population included households in Godeti Wambera, Muti Alibo, Adadi, and Kersa Werko; expert and head of Culture and Tourism Office; and office head of Woreda, Zone, and Kebele leaders. Proportionate stratified sampling and simple random sampling techniques were employed for the households, and 202 samples were selected out of the 404 households for questionnaire. 14 face-to-face interviews were conducted with heads and experts of culture tourism office, as well as Zonal and Woreda head office, and Kebele leaders. Analysis of survey data was undertaken using SPSS version 23. Descriptive and factor analysis were employed to analyze the relationship between the variables. The results of the analysis were presented by using descriptive statistics of frequencies, mean, and standard deviation. The findings of the study show that the study area is well endowed with both natural and cultural tourism resources, but those resources are not well documented and developed into tourism product. Moreover, conservation and protection, accommodation, accessibility, promotion, and amenity practices are less developed. Development of the existing resources into products is negatively affected by political, economic, environmental, sociocultural and infrastructural factors. It is recommended that government tourism offices at various levels and stakeholders should give attention to the tourism resources of the area. Some recommended measures for the tourism development in the area were: exhaustive identification and documentation of the resources; and the development of these resources into tourism products that need to be visited by local, regional, and international visitors as may be appropriate.
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Keywords
Potentials, Factors, Practice, Tourism, Tourism Product, Product Development and KersaMelima