DEVELOPING CULTURAL PRODUCTS AS TOURISM ATTRACTIONS

 Cultural Tourism products are experiences based in a relationship between ( CHM) Cultural Heritage Management and Tourism, The CHM is the experience provider and tourist is the experience facilitator.

What is product?

"Product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that satisfy a need or want. according to" (Kotler and Turner 1989) to look at what a product satisfy has distinguish conceptual levels of it, Core product, Tangible product, Augmented product.

Core product; This is the most important feature that describes the core benefit or solution provided by the product consumption, Is the reason of a customer to come and visit a destination which will satisfy his or her needs. example human history, evolution of mankind, human expression and beauty, or struggle for freedom.

Tangible product; The physical manifestation of the core product, The tangible facilitation of satisfying the need or core benefit, example the museum, festival, or cultural tour.

Augmented Product; This is for provide addition feature above and beyond the tangible product that add value and facilitate easier satisfaction of the core need. something increasing the beauty of the attraction that the costumer never think of it, 

Hierarchy of attraction

The cultural attractions product not all are the some, some they will be of great interest to the visitors and draw them from great distances and others will have little or no appeal to tourists.

Strategies for Cultural Tourism Attraction Development

Building a primary attraction; By identifying all the attractions fount at the specific place and identify the biggest one with the greatest primary potential, The primary attraction is those attractions in a destination that strongly influence the visitor to come from great distance.

Building lesser attractions to set/ network that collectivity can constitute a primary attraction

Identify all available attractions in a destination and develop them all in a way that you link them to each other , group in themes, map them and design connected products like tours. example small culture attractions like customs, worship places, housing, dressing.

Using Events/ Festivals

This it may be like a short term primary attractions, serve to concentrate a wide array of activities into a condensed time frame, a  mass of products fro consumption. example sauti za busara, 

Tactics to develop single attractions according to ( McKercher & DuCro, Chapter 8)

Tell the story around the asset; Cultural places/ assets always bear a story behind and cultural tourism is the process of telling that story, the story consign the cultural displayed for the tourist to like or interested with his or her tour.

Make the asset come alive; Visitation to become creative, exciting, evoking the imagination of the core need in most stunning manner.

Make it participatory; make tourist to engage with the displayed, example wandering around, dressing, drinking, and interacting.

Make it relevant; Present asset according to tourist's knowledge and frame of reference, make it culturally applicable to him/her.

Deliver quality and authenticity; Cultural tourist are well-educate, well-traveled hence very demanding also the quality and price should match.

Mythologize the asset; Convert asset to places with spiritual relevance by tying it to existing or new myths example foundation of tribe myth, indigenous beliefs gods myths.

Emphasize its otherness/ uniqueness; something different from the tourist's frame of reference, difference from the mainstream culture of the host society something makes it so unique.

Show the link from the past to present; Show the historic origin of an asset ant its evolution to its current status, the meaning of cultural asset change in different historic eras. example Hehe victory ageist German, pre colonial, colonial, after independence, globalized society.

Make it triumphant/ spectacular; you attraction must have edge over other, similar ones. example more spectacular battle than in other fields. example crazy atrocities like holocaust, Rwanda genocide.

Make it fantasy; evoke people imagination beyond what really happened in the place and transcend reality and fantasy.

Make it fun, light, and entertaining; most visitors don't seek deep learning experience but shallow entertainment so that you should be funny and visually appearing.