Agritourism Digital and Social Media Marketing in Africa

Résumé fourni par la source

The need to effectively promote rural communities is gaining momentum as tourists no longer have the interest to continue touring urban-based tourism sites. Many tourists now seek experiences. These experiences include direct participation in agricultural activities during the holiday session such as being involved in fishing, hunting, harvesting, and ploughing among other activities. They also seek secondary indirect participation such as playing a passive role of staying in farm rooms, eating farm traditional menus, and visiting recreational parks among other activities. It now comes as the duty of the marketer to ensure that tourists are aware of these activities in the agritourism sector. The book chapter seeks to explore the digital and social media marketing channels marketers can use to meet the needs and wants of agritourists. The main objectives of the chapter include identifying the digital and social media channels that are available for marketing agritourism products in Africa, analysing the challenges being faced by marketers in agritourism digital and social media marketing and finally proffering solutions to the highlighted challenges. The research will be literature-based through the use of recent relevant journals in gathering literature based on the objectives. The study&s;s framework is based on Zvavahera and Chigora who outlined key elements needed to transform the agritourism sector in Zimbabwe. The methodology will also include the use of secondary data to validate the findings. The need by economies to meet their development goals has spearheaded the rise in the recognition of the long-forgotten agritourism sector as one of the anchors of economic development. This is based on the validation that the development of the sector can curb rural-to-urban migration through employment creation and increasing the flow of money to the rural sphere, and in turn increasing the Gross Domestic Product of a nation. The need by many farmers to be sustainable has also led to the growth of the sector as many farmers seek the need to increase profit margins and gain relevance to acquire state funding. It is also argued that agritourism requires little investment yet high long-term returns, which creates a gate pass of business growth for many farmers. The recognition of the sector by farmers as a lucrative investment is likely going to intensify competition which can only be curbed through effective digital and social media marketing.