Heritage Tourism Development and Marketing Model: a community-based intervention to address barriers hampering the heritage sector in Namibia

Abstract

Heritage tourism is a form of tourism that attracts people to visit heritage sites to appreciate the natural heritage and to experience or learn about cultural heritage. It includes cultural tours, trips to festivals, visits to monuments and ruins, art viewing, and experiencing traditions and their vibrant expression in the target community. Marketing and development of the heritage tourism industry in Namibia have been experiencing numerous impediments. To address the status quo, this qualitative study adopted an interpretive paradigm and an interpretive phenomenological design to explore the key barriers hindering the heritage sector through in-depth interviews and a focus group discussion with 20 key heritage practitioners. In addition, secondary data from records and reports from various heritage institutions in the region were administered using document analysis. The study revealed that the development, promotion and preservation of Namibia’s heritage resources as tourism products poses many challenges, including inadequate funding, lack of basic infrastructure, weak documentation and poor marketing of heritage products. Therefore, the study proposes the Heritage Tourism Development and Marketing Model as an alternative strategy to address the identified challenges. The proposed model includes a road map with detailed activities to develop heritage tourism in a way that engages the local and all heritage stakeholders by adopting a participatory approach to valorization and marketing of local heritage resources as tourism products.