Tourism lab programme report
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- 2.1.2 The Present Situation
2.1 Marketing and Promotion2.1.1 BackgroundZanzibar has naturally benefitted from the national publicity from the United Republic of Tanzania. This has strategically positioned Zanzibar as a destination that offers a combination of safari and beach holiday options. Following approximately two decades of promoting Zanzibar as the ‘ultimate tropical get-away destination’ on the Indian Ocean, concerns have been raised from tourism stakeholders on whether the destination has managed to achieve proper destination branding and marketing. Zanzibar’s tourism product is still relatively unknown and major marketing efforts will be necessary to increase awareness. 2.1.2 The Present SituationCurrently Zanzibar does not stand out amongst the world’s tourism destinations despite its rich historical cultural and natural tourism resources. Only a small proportion of the global population have an image of what the country has to offer. The Tourism Promotion Act of 2009 and its amendment give the Commission for Tourism a mandate to promote Zanzibar as a destination, though there has been a great lack of technical know-how in the practice of marketing and promotion of tourism products and services both domestically and internationally. Whilst mature destinations such as Maldives and Seychelles use carefully constructed promotional plans for each geographical target market, Zanzibar has been operating without a formal marketing strategic plan and marketing activities have been carried out in ad-hoc manner without clear measurable aims, objectives and targets. This limits interest and awareness of Zanzibar and decreases the likelihood of visits. Zanzibar needs to position itself carefully in the global market as a tourism destination. This requires careful consideration of the potential tourism resources it has and products and services have to be promoted to carefully selected target markets.
It is clear that international marketing has had more emphasis compared to domestic and regional marketing in the hope of attracting more foreign exchange earnings. Tourism marketing and promotion overseas has been conducted in conjunction with Tanzania Tourist Board mainly using trade fairs. Traditionally tourism flows to Zanzibar have come from Europe. In 1993, visitor arrivals recorded totalled 68,597, and by 2013 arrivals reached 181,301. Whilst this is positive, these visitor arrivals remains relatively low compared to other destinations with similar strengths in terms of products at a global and regional level. Italy is the major international source market, contributing approximately 28 percent of total arrivals in 2013 as shown in the Figure 2.1. Figure 2.1: Top Five Source Markets, 2013
Source: Zanzibar Commission for Tourism, 2013 New source markets to Zanzibar will have to be evaluated and directed in view of retail tourism enhancement. Competing in saturated markets such as Germany, UK and the US, where Zanzibar competes with other destinations across the world with similar product potential like Maldives, and Mauritius will be difficult and expensive. In this regard, a closer look at emerging source markets such as the Middle East, South America and the Far East will be necessary. Tourists from the Middle East are increasingly confronted with complications with entry documents to enter developed tourism destinations in the Americas and Europe and are looking for alternatives. The relative proximity of Zanzibar and the strong Muslim tradition in the country provide entry points. Domestic Market: Domestic tourism plays a strong role in increasing tourism investments and tourist expenditures, development of natural areas as parks since they form a suitable recreation place for families, decreasing seasonality and enhancing social bonds through visiting friends and relatives. Domestic tourism brings about an intermingling of people from diverse social and cultural backgrounds as well as redistribution of spending power. Despite the predominant role of domestic tourism in the total tourism activity, few studies have discussed the significance and growth trends of such markets or the factors that affect its attributes. The significance of domestic tourism in Zanzibar is still invisible due to the lack of commonly accepted and used definitions of domestic travel, another reason is that the available domestic tourism data is mostly unreliable whereby local operators do not keep record of the people visiting their centres. Although limited in size, the domestic market is growing. With increasing disposable incomes, modernised lifestyles and better quality of life, the leisure and recreation sector in tourism has emerged as the biggest attraction for the domestic tourist in recent years. According to the data compiled by Zanzibar Commission for Tourism from thee most visited tourism attractions, the number of domestic tourists has grown from 9,060 in 2010/11 to 9,850 in 2012/13. Figure 2.2 Domestic Visitors.
Source: Jozani Park, Kidike and Department of Archive and Antiquity, 2013.
Zanzibar has yet to fully utilise e-communication in the tourism sector. An upgrade on the existing national online platform including the website would vastly increase the destination’s marketing opportunities. E-marketing is considered more cost effective and environmentally friendly compared to the traditional marketing method of printing brochures. E-marketing solutions help destinations to connect with visitors and show off their visual appeal. They can tap into tourists’ interests, answer their enquiries and connect them with the destination more or less immediately. The current multi-language website needs revising as it not dynamic and lacks vital social media components. Furthermore, the information on the website is outdated with low-resolution images and lacks sufficient coverage of both islands of Unguja and Pemba. Increasingly, tourist destinations are using interactive web sites and web services to raise awareness, attract visitors and generate revenue from travel. The internet is more efficient and less costly than the traditional tools of travel marketing. Zanzibar marketing methods face challenges as technology has displaced mass marketing with direct messaging to more specific audiences. Today’s marketing best practices include strategic website design, search engine marketing, e-commerce and other interactive tools catering to a global audience.
The branding of a destination is a crucial element for any marketing and promotional activities both internally and externally, as it must depict the actual image of the country. Zanzibar cannot afford to be complacent. In a tourism world that is highly competitive, Zanzibar must learn to fight harder for visitors, investment and business opportunities. One of the major challenges facing tourism in the country is the fact that despite a number of tourism attractions, the country is not well known as the tourist destination. There is a need for a massive branding the country as the tourism destination. As a destination, Zanzibar must stand out and play to its strengths without losing sight of what makes it authentic and unique by understanding who and what makes up Zanzibar in order to gain a competitive identity as seen below in figure 2.3. Figure 2.3: The Competitive Identity 
Source: The Competitive Identity, Simon Anholt 2002 Zanzibar has been using different slogans and mottos (including ‘Ultimate Indian Ocean Experience’ and ‘The Spice Island’) to market its tourism products and services. This has resulted in mixed messages to markets with resulting confusion and lack of clarity as to Zanzibar’s positioning and image particularly from the point of view of wholesalers and travel agents selling Zanzibar. The issue of destination branding is to be studied and resolved. Given the fiercely competitive character of the market, it is imperative that the brand conveys the unique competitive advantage that truly sets Zanzibar apart from other Indian Ocean islands.
Although Zanzibar has been quite successful in penetrating the European market, awareness of Zanzibar as a single tourist destination is still low both in the domestic and international markets. Generally, marketing is fragmented. The major market segment remains sun, sand and sea in all markets. Though growing rapidly, other segments of the market such as nature, culture and other heritage-based tourism remain niche sectors of the market. Sports and adventure and other speciality markets remain comparatively small. Zanzibar does not have outstanding assets that would draw large numbers of visitors with these special travel motives, though undoubtedly, it could attract visitors in their tens of thousands, particularly if nature tourism is combined with sun and sand. Figure 2.4: Purpose of visits to Zanzibar 
Source: Zanzibar Commission for Tourism, 2010 International Visitor Exit Survey Report In terms of MICE tourism (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events), Zanzibar has not yet reached the standard of offering these services, though some hotels have meetings and conference facilities on a small to medium scale. Domestic and regional tourism has yet to be fully promoted and positioned as potential targets for tourism growth; previously fewer efforts have targeted these particular markets. Furthermore, with the existing concentration on traditional source markets and less attention on non-traditional markets with different trends such as the Gulf region, Asia and domestic markets, Zanzibar would continue to experience undiversified source markets and unsteady growth rate in tourism. In addition, current source markets reflect European travel patterns of over twenty years ago. Due to the nature of these source markets, Zanzibar’s tourism calendar has become very seasonal with two main business seasons (June-August and December-January) creating gaps in between the main holiday seasons, whereby most business operations practically cease.
The tourism industry is private sector driven, but the existing legal framework has provided the Zanzibar Commission for Tourism with the mandate to promote Zanzibar as tourism destination with no mention of a role for the private sector. Zanzibar has been promoted overseas by individual initiatives with no clear guidance. This led to an imbalanced and uneven international image of Zanzibar. However, since 2008 joint marketing efforts between the private and public sectors have started to emerge, though without a legal framework. The Government of Zanzibar provides a substantial amount of money to Zanzibar Association of Tour Operators to participate at the International Tourismus Boerse (ITB) travel trade show in Germany. This is a great initiative with room for growth. It is now essential to ensure that there is a legal framework guiding and allowing the public and private sectors to coordinate marketing activities.
Although the tourism industry is private sector driven, majority of private sector organisations lack enough resources to operate marketing activities effectively. Currently, the majority of international marketing and promotion events are enjoyed by few and usually in partnership with other companies. Public and private organisations and agencies, which contribute to the tourism industry, have had inadequate funding to conduct marketing activities, both domestically and internationally. Despite having the mandate for marketing and promotion, ZCT has not had sufficient funds to formally operate a marketing department. Additionally, there is also heavy reliance on print promotion and tourism trade fairs, whereas online advertising, which tends to be more cost effective, has not been given a priority. Given the financial constraints, prioritisation of marketing activities needs to be revised in order to meet modern marketing demands as well as creating a solid foundation in branding tourism products and services. Directory: content -> dam -> undp -> documents -> projects -> TZA projects -> Project Closure Report projects -> U n country Team in Jordan post-2015 concept note dialogues on Partnerships with Civil Society undp -> Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Office for Project Services projects -> Country: Ghana TZA -> Back to office report undp tanzania projects -> Request for ceo endorsement projects -> Republic of namibia projects -> Conserving Biodiversity and reducing habitat degradation in Protected Areas and their Areas of Influence Download 350.55 Kb. Share with your friends:
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