Evaluating marketing strategies in promoting rural horse racing for tourism development at Umzinyathi District Municipality
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Date
2020
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University of Zululand
Abstract
This study evaluates the marketing strategies in promoting rural horse racing for tourism development uMzinyathi District Municipality, such as the Dundee July event as tourism development. Rural horse racing is a historic contemporary facet of tourism in many developing countries, hence the study looked at the Dundee July horse racing event as cultural-based tourism. The rural tourism development in the Umzinyathi District in Dundee is seen to be merely based on a wide range of natural potential. The fundamental purpose of this study was to explore and examine the effectiveness of the existing marketing strategies in developing and sustaining horse racing in the rural Dundee located in the uMzinyathi district municipality. The researcher was motivated to examine the marketing strategies of the Dundee July horse racing event for tourism development at uMzinyathi district municipality because the event is not receiving the widespread recognition it merits as a tourism event in terms of coverage.
The horse racing event has become a popular traditional and cultural horse racing attraction in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa with one main goal to contribute to the growth of the economy and job creation. Research shows that tourism constitutes one of the largest industries, which contribute up to 6 trillion dollars to global economies annually (or 9% of global gross domestic product) while creating nearly 260 million jobs worldwide, either directly in the industry or in related sectors. Tourism events such as the Dundee July in South Africa is a complex industry, this is the result that it is a compilation of both event and various services offering, such as accommodation, transportation, dining, recreation, and travel for participants. All these services involve tourism experience for the participants in the horse racing event. At the end of the day, since these services are not offered by one provider who has control over them, it is said to be complex as services are provided by different people or organizations who might not communicate or act as a team with other providers.
The adoption of effective marketing strategies is important. The study finds the marketing mix key foundation on which most modern marketing strategies and business activities are based. More so, it also discovered that an extended marketing mix is a tool used by businesses and Marketers to help determine a product or brand offering.
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The 4 Ps of marketing were seen to be associated with the Marketing Mix since their development in 1960 by Jerome McCarthy, which was later developed into 7Ps (“product, price, promotion, place, packaging, positioning, and people). Understanding the 7Ps of marketing known as the marketing mix is similar to the marketing strategy tools of 4Ps. As marketing is a “continually evolving discipline and as such can be one that organization and firm find themselves left very much behind the competition if they stand still for too long”.
The motivational theory was adopted by the researcher to put things in the right perspective. A motive is a starting point that triggers the decision-making process of an individual (Crompton 2006). Therefore, in this case, motivation is a theoretical concept that denotes the driving force of human behaviour and explains why individuals choose one alternative instead of another. It is argued that socialization, leisure, and the development of new relationships are the factors that motivate individuals to attend events. It is therefore in the best interests of the event marketer to provide a satisfactory experience to its customers. This study adopted a mixed-method as the research methodology, the researcher explores the importance of marketing tourism events to promote tourism at the uMzinyathi municipality.
The key objective of the study examined the marketing strategies used in promoting the Dundee July event, to establish an effective marketing strategy that can best promote the Dundee July event as a stand-alone event and put it on the tourist map of South Africa. Structured questionnaires were distributed as a means of collecting data with residents and visitors. In doing so the information collected assisted the researcher in exploring and examining the effectiveness of the existing marketing strategies in developing and sustaining rural horse racing in Dundee located at uMzinyathi district municipality (KZN), as a tourism event. The results revealed that organizing an event is a challenging task, thus requires serious effective marketing strategies to attract a greater number of spectators.
Description
A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Recreation and Tourism in the Faculty of Arts, University of Zululand, 2020.
Keywords
Marketing strategies, rural horse racing, tourism Development