Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority Tourism Essay

Ngorongoro saving study control Tourism EssayThe study focuses on the role of progression in phaetonry, the case study of Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority in the northern tourist circuit of Tanzania. Despite of the wealth Ngorongoro Conservation Area has in terms of diverse natural resources, topographical, social-cultural attractions and some other potentials, it receives relative less number of tourists. Tourists wealth of Ngorongoro Conservation Area frame insufficiently tapped because of among other reasons is due to inadequate effective and efficiency tourism forward motional strategies and limited budget for promotion.The study has four objectives which were to identify and prize the use of different promotion strategies used by Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority to make up its market sh are, to access issues and challenges of applying different promotion strategies used by Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and to recomm curiosity ways in which promotio n strategies can be improved.The study applied triangulation approach whereby a number of systems were used in data prayer including literature search, interview, observation, focused group discussion and questionnaires while descriptive statistics were used in data analysis. Data were presented in tables,, graphs and figures. The results showed that NCA is still receiving a lesser gist of tourists compared to its compared to its competitors. NCAA has not put enough efforts in advertising NCA worldwide and the kind of promotion strategies used are not adequate and not abiding to the casual changing technology.The study recommended that Tourism promotion requires a well comprehensive marketing scheme to be developed and implemented by both the politics and private agents. This should be supported by regular coordinated efforts to allow them to discuss about tourism promotion for Ngorongoro Conservation Area tourism destination.CHAPTER peerless INTRODUCTION1.1 Background Inform ationAccording to WTO (2005), tourism is the largest and fastest growing industry in the world. In developing countries mostly in Africa tourism is state to depend most on natural resources as key attractions (Bonavides, 2001). From 1990 to 1998 tourism visits to the developing countries grew twice as fast annually as worldwide tourism ( 9.5% per year compared to 4.6% per year) and in the year 2002, it had grown to much than 30% of total tourist visits (Ashley, 2002). By the year 1998 tourism was among the five leading export sectors in two thirds of the worlds 49 least developed countries to include Tanzania (Bonavides, 2001). According to the national economic survey, in 2009, a total of 647,193 tourists visited National pose, whereby 533,655 tourists were foreigners and 113,538 were locals. Earnings from tourists who visited the National parking areas were Tshs. 67.3 billion. In addition, a total of 438,179 tourists visited Ngorongoro Conservation Authority, of which 234,767 w ere foreigners and 203,412 were locals. Earnings from tourists who visited Ngorongoro were Tshs. 34.7 billion. (http//www.tanzania.go.tz/economicsurvey.html).According to the study d angiotensin-converting enzyme by Rusumo in the year 2005 tourism contributed 17% of the national utter(a) Domestic Product and 25% of the countrys foreign earnings. In 2009, receipts from wildlife sub-sector increased to Tshs 23,575.7 million from Tshs. 18,387.4 million in 2008, equivalent to an increase of 22 percent. This bunk was a result of an increase in activities of tourism such as photographic sceneries, wild animal hunting and licensing of trophy business (ibid). however, tourism sector was anticipate to attract over one million tourists by the year 2010. Tanzania is one of the largest countries in Africa. The countrys tourism potential ranges from her wildlife resources, a spectacular landscape and scenery, water bodies and beaches, a diversity of cultures and numerous archaeological sites .Tourism has become a warring business. For tourism sector, competitive advantage is no longer natural, but change magnitudely semisynthetic driven by science, technology, information and innovation. As such, it is not simply the stock of natural resources of Tanzania that will determine her competitiveness in tourism, but rather, how these resources are managed and to what finale they are complemented with man-made innovations.Although the Tanzanian government has identified tourism as a potential sector for expansion, availing of the countrys natural amenities and wildlife resources and targeting the relatively high end of the market, it has not been able to crystalize its full potential in tourism. As such, the contribution of tourism to employment, small business development, income and foreign reciprocation earnings remains inadequate. According to Economic and Social Research Foundation report of 2009, tourism sector had an average growth rate of 10% per year. From 1990 to 1999 tourist arrivals and foreign exchange earnings from tourism increased by an average annual rate of 15.15% and 27.41% respectively but since 2000, tourists arrival and foreign exchange earnings have been stagnating at average annual growth rates of 1.49% (arrivals) and 0.09% (earnings).According to Lickorish and Jenkins (1997) promotion is a vital marketing tool in tourism sector due to the disposition of the sector where by it is a demand and market led business, consumer is regarded as a king, it is embracing a wide range of components and services with a bigger range of related services and tourist attractions. Promotion is the most visible of the four principles of marketing in tourism business, it is used to manage demand, make potential customers aware of the products, whet their appetites, stimulate demands and provide information that help customers to make decisions. It generally provides incentives to purchase, increase sales volume and resulting to more profits by increasing the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Middleton, 1994).Promotion shall be viewed as one of the critical means to acquire, maintain and boost organizations market mete out in tourism sector worldwide and ensure its survival.In modern society promotion has become an important part of the social economic systems. It has evolved into vital dialogue systems that overwhelm and influence business. As a communication system promotion has developed further as a result of information technology that reign business. In competitive business environments and free market base economies, promotion is one of the useful favored tools to win the market and hence success in business. In this modern world of high technology effective and viable promotion can be achieved through the use of different methods and tactics of promotion and the use of information technology.With advanced technology which the world is currently experiencing, effective and viable promotion can be achieve d through the use of different method and tactics of promotion and use of information technology so as to attract distant tourists. The strength of the Tanzanian tourist product is dominated by the natural assets which mirror the clients motivations for visiting the country. The main strength includes abundance, diversity, reliability and visibility of wildlife, secure environment and beautiful scenery, safe destination as well as rich African culture and friendly people. All these make Tanzania one of the unique destinations in the African Continent that has yet to be discover by galore(postnominal). One of the leading tourist destinations in Tanzania is Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) as shown in see table 1.1 NCA is endowed with diverse and plenty of tourist attractions including the volcanic Craters such as Ngorongoro, Empakaani, Olmoti and Oldonyo Lengai Creaters (Ngorongoro being a wonder of the Natural World. There are also other attractions to mention few are Nasera Rox ck, Shifting spine and Olkarien Gorge as well as wildlife, vegetation and rich indigenous culture. Despite the above mentioned attractions NCA receives a relatively low volume of tourist and tax income one can argue that NCA has not put into effect enough efforts to promote its tourist attractions. Currently the major tourism promotion strategies used are Advertisement, Public Relations (publicity) and Brochures and other printed materialsTable. 1.1 Tourists visited Ngorongoro Conservation Authority and Earnings for January declination 2009Month Foreigners Locals Total Revenue (Tshs)January 19,176 18,462 37,638 3,184,363,880.10February 23,628 17,239 40,867 3,601,413,146.50March 14,072 14,463 28,535 3,162,927,138.70April 10,271 12,239 22,510 1,289,337,307.95May 8,714 12,062 20,776 1,332,029,171.80June 16,075 15,940 32,015 2,456,883,262.00July 31,908 21,786 53,694 4,231,731,129.51August 32,995 22,030 55,025 4,289,879,099.00September 19,916 17,224 37,140 3,024,501,009.97October 21 ,916 17,392 39,308 3,045,013,094.00November 14,703 14,229 28,932 2,240,074,238.15December 21,393 20,346 41,739 2,883,440,244.21Total 234,767 203,412 438,179 34,741,592,721.89Source Ngorongoro Conservation Area, (2009)Previously tourism was not given due attention in the country. It is argued that the country has not exhaustively promoted her tourist products, the situation that has led Tanzania to receive less number of tourists compared to her competitors such as Kenya, South Africa and other Asian countries (Thomassen et al, 2005). In this respect, tourism wealth of the country is not all told tapped because of the inadequate tourism promotional efforts among other reasons. While that is the case, today the business environment has changed into free market based economy coupled with very rigid competition and high technology worldwide. This situation requires organizations in the business to undertake promotion of their products and/or services in order to acquire a material ma rket share.1.2 Problem StatementBeing relatively labour intensive (providing jobs to over 300,000 people) implies that tourisms growth will benefit more people and in the semipermanent there will be substantial reduction in poverty countrywide. Tanzania has a comparative and competitive advantage in the sector due to the unspoiled natural endowments (in the form of unspoiled fauna and flora, beautiful natural sceneries and landscapes, coral reef and marine life, and a nearly pristine coastline) for attracting travelers, not forgetting a confirmatory government that recognizes private sector leadership in operating the tourist industry. Yet, the sector could expand more if it will be able to attract more tourists through the proper marketing mix (price, product, promotion and place) with an emphasis in Promotion since the other three Ps are well managed/ natural advantageous.With the anticipate rise of contribution of Tourism to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 9% (Tshs 2,399.3 b illion) in 2009 to 9.2% (Tshs 6,052.7 billion) by 2019 Ministry of Natural Recourses and Tourism (MNRT) together with different Tourist organizations (Ngorongoro Area Conservation) needs to put and implement purposively efforts to see the target is achieved to be one hundred percent and over and above.Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) as one of the giant tourism organization in the country has embarked on promotion of her tourist product in order to create, maintain and boost its market share hence increasing income both at organization level and national level. However, despite the existing strategies NAC receives less number of tourists compared to its competitors such as Maasai Mara- Kenya, Kruger National Park and other protected areas in Africa. The strategically natural placement of NAC at the northern circuit can persuade the vast tourists who visit northern tourist circuit (Serengeti, Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Parks).It is suspected that the growth of t ourism at NAC remains insufficiently tapped because of inadequate effective and efficient tourism promotional strategies. The study and then aims at assessing the extent the tourism promotion strategies can contribute to the growth of the sector, using the case of Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Arusha region. Moreover most antecedently conducted researches such as those done by Gwamagobe in 2004 and Mbuya in 2000 suggested on undertaking more research focusing on the impact of promotion in the tourism sector but little has been done to date.The study is therefore aimed at assessing the contribution of tourism promotion strategies towards the improvement of tourism sector in the country with reference to NCA bearing in mind that tourism in the country is dominated by natural resources especially wildlife of which NCA is one of the top destinations. thusly the focus of the study is to find out the contribution of promotion in tourism industry.1.3 Research Objectives1. 3.1 General Ob jectiveThe general objective of the study was to assess the contribution of tourism promotional strategies in improving the tourism sector in Tanzania1.3.2 Specific objectivesTo identify different promotional strategies used by NCAA to increase the number of tourists,To assess the relationship between an increase in density of different promotion strategies used by NCAA to increase the number of touristsTo identify the challenges go about by NCAA in applying the identified promotional strategies.To recommend ways in which tourism promotional strategies can be improved1.4 Research QuestionsThe study questions were based on the research specific objectivesWhat are the different promotional strategies used by NCAA to market its tourism products,What is the relationship between an increase in concentration of different promotion strategies and increase in number of tourists in the past five years?What are the challenges faced by NCAA in applying the identified promotional strategies.1 .5 Significance of the StudyThe end product of the study is expected to add value to the followingThe study can be used by NCAA to realize the most suitable promotional strategy that can be used to improve its market shareThe findings from the study can be used by other agencies as well as the ministry to identify the gaps on the existing promotional practices for the purpose of attaining best value market share and to improve their competitive performance and strategic advantageThe findings may also be used by the tourism partners in changing their perception on their promotion strategy management.This will also help to enrich the body of knowledge, and may be used as a reference by students / professionals /company executives in the content of tourism.Since the study is part of the researchers academic course, it will enable the researcher to qualify for the award of Master Degree in Business Administration.1.6 Rationale of the StudyTanzania is among the countries with many touri st attractions and tourism is the major source of foreign exchange earnings. However, this is not the case Tanzania is not getting as many tourists as expected. This could be attributed omit of adequate promotion for touristic activities. Subsequently this study aimed at assessing the promotional strategies that may enable NCAA as well as the country to attract more tourists so that we promote the tourism sector.1.7 Scope of the StudyThe study was conducted in NCAA and covered all departments and sections which are directly or indirectly dealing with promotion. The research l however consulted other tourism stake holders organizations like TANAPA (Tanzania National Park), TTB (Tanzania Tourist Board) and TATO (Tanzania Association of Tours Operators). The study was conducted for a period of 8 weeks. Secondary data covered a period of five years that is from the year 2007 to 2011.1.8 Limitations of the StudyWith Government organizations/ Authorities red tapped procedures was difficu lt to access some of the confidential informationfiscal constraint financial resources available are not enough to explore all possible sources of information, hence the study was conducted only in one organization. However , the results can be generalized in other touristic destinations in TanzaniaThe time for the study was not enough to carry out intensive and extensive study.