Practices and challenges of promoting major tourism destinations of Bale Zone for Sustainable Tourism Development in Ethiopia.
Year: 2017
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Ethiopia in general and Bale Zone in particular, is rich in both natural and cultural tourism resources. Conversely, it’s economic, socio-cultural and environmental role is insignificant due to problems mainly related to the lack of infrastructural development and marketing of the destination. In order to make tourism development more sustainable, it is important to look into the problems associated with promoting and marketing of the tourist destinations. Thus, as to achieve the objective of the study a mixed research methodology was implemented. Since the aim of this study was to assess the Practices and Challenges of promoting Bale Zone major Tourism Resources for Sustainable Tourism Development the research was typically descriptive in nature. In this study, both primary and secondary data was gathered. The data was collected through extensive, questionnaire, interview, focus group discussion, and field observation. To gather the needed primary data, 357 samples were selected from domestic and oversea tourists who have visited BZTD in 2014. The collected data were coded, processed and analyzed with the help of SPSS. The finding of the study demonstrated that the promotional and marketing activities of Bale Zone failed to meet their ultimate goal to become an important tourist destination because of the absence and limited nature of promotional practices, budget shortages, lack of attention from stakeholders and critically, a lack of skilled manpower. Above all, awareness problems, absence of good governance, and lack of cooperation between stakeholders aggravated problems which prevent sustainability.
Authors: Berhanu Esubalew Bayih, Mesfin Worku Tola
Institutions: Madda Walabu University, Arsi University
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4402118918