Overview
Kenya has a myriad of heritage sites and materials but the country is still at a nascent stage of developing viable and vibrant touristic businesses based on the available cultural heritage resources. Conversely, South Korea is touted as one of the countries in the world that has been able to develop sustainable tourism products based on cultural heritage resources. This paper provides a synopsis of the nature of South Korean and Kenyan heritage tourism products by exploring and identify primary cultural heritage tourism products in both countries, attempts to evaluate the South Korean heritage tourism model, and provides an assessment of areas in which South Korea can share experiences with Kenya toward the development of sustainable tourism and heritage tourism entrepreneurship from heritage materials, sites and facilities. In this paper, representative samples of cultural patrimony from South Korea and Kenya that has been or can be developed into tourism enterprise will be reviewed, with particular focus on tourism product identification, development, marketing and management. Preliminary evaluation of these attributes appear to suggest that Kenya can substantially borrow and benefit from the South Korean experience, especially in terms of cultural heritage legislation, mapping, conservation and development of the same into sustainable heritage tourism products.
Keywords: Heritage tourism, Kenyan tourism, Korean tourism, tourism smart phones apps, culture industries
Sponser
Mwanzia D. Kyule
Principal Investigator
Abstract
Kenya has a myriad of heritage sites and materials but the country is still at a nascent stage of developing viable and vibrant touristic businesses based on the available cultural heritage resources. Conversely, South Korea is touted as one of the countries in the world that has been able to develop sustainable tourism products based on cultural heritage resources. This paper provides a synopsis of the nature of South Korean and Kenyan heritage tourism products by exploring and identify primary cultural heritage tourism products in both countries, attempts to evaluate the South Korean heritage tourism model, and provides an assessment of areas in which South Korea can share experiences with Kenya toward the development of sustainable tourism and heritage tourism entrepreneurship from heritage materials, sites and facilities. In this paper, representative samples of cultural patrimony from South Korea and Kenya that has been or can be developed into tourism enterprise will be reviewed, with particular focus on tourism product identification, development, marketing and management. Preliminary evaluation of these attributes appear to suggest that Kenya can substantially borrow and benefit from the South Korean experience, especially in terms of cultural heritage legislation, mapping, conservation and development of the same into sustainable heritage tourism products.