Assessment of Post-conflict Tourism Destinations Rebranding Strategies: Evidence from Key Stakeholders in Addis Ababa
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Date
2022-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The primary objective of this thesis was to find out what kind of rebranding strategies should major tourism stakeholders engage in the post-conflict period so that Ethiopia could be redrawn positively in the international markets. The study mainly adopted a non-probability sampling method, using both purposive and convenience sampling techniques to allow for conscious selection of respondents based on their competence, perspective, and experience in the tourism sector. A mixed research method, both qualitative and quantitative approaches is used to analyse the data. Data were primary collected through questionnaires, interviews and content analysis. Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 24 was used to process qualitative data and analyse by using inferential statistics, while thematic analysis was employed on qualitative data. The study showed that proper and practical application of tourism marketing tools have huge positive impact in the post-conflict image restoration. Further, the majority of the respondents indicated that following the civil-unrest, Ethiopia lacks unified approach to combat the effects of its tourism brand erosions. The study also revealed that tourism destinations rebranding marketing strategies in the post-conflict period were not consciously practiced by the major stakeholders. Tourism destination management organizations (DMOs) and other key entities need to design effective strategies that could bring together all the stakeholders, while encouraging agreements among tourism service providers in the country. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge regarding tourism destinations marketing, particularly destination rebranding in post-conflict period. This thesis is also imperative to the major tourism stakeholders and tourism firms so that they can evaluate their tourism destination rebranding strategies based on the conclusion and recommendations given under the study.
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tourism destination marketing, destination rebranding and repositioning, and destinations image restoration.