dc.description.abstract |
Cultural festivals attract socio-economic development to host communities through promotion
of tourism. Previous studies focused on product-oriented approach to promoting cultural
festivals. However, not much attention has been paid to the role of promotion media mix to
expand opportunities for tourism through cultural festivals. This study was, therefore, designed
to examine the effects of promotion media for Sango and Oranyan festivals in Oyo town, Nigeria,
with a view to determining their influence on tourism development.
Edward Chace Tolman’s Push and Pull Theory served as the framework, while a combination of
survey and ethnographic designs were adopted. Purposive sampling was used to select Atiba
Local Government Area owing to the concentration of cultural activities relating to the two
festivals in the area. Convenience sampling method was used to select 45 household from each
of the ten political wards in Atiba local government. A self-structured questionnaire was
administered on heads of 450 households selected. Six key informant interviews were conducted
with three policy makers from Oyo State Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Alaafin’s Cultural
Ambassador and two traditional chiefs in Oyo kingdom based on their key roles in the festivals.
The social networks of both festivals were monitored for a year, between 14 August, 2019 and
20 August, 2020 to determine their effectiveness. Accidental sampling was used to select 15
tourists for in-depth interviews on Sango festival and 10 tourists on Oranyan festival.
Quantitative data were subjected to descriptive statistics and Pearson product moment
correlation, while thematic analysis was employed for the qualitative data.
Among the media that the residents got information from, print media ranked the highest
(x̄ =3.92±0.27), followed by new media (x̄ =3.76±0.68), while radio ranked the least
(x̄ =3.14±0.80). There was a weak but positive relationship between festival promotion and
tourism development (r=0.242, p<0.05). Employment opportunities (x̄ =3.36±0.68), facelift in
infrastructure (x̄ =3.28±0.87), and preservation of cultural practices (x̄ =3.48±0.84) were the
major socio-economic benefits of promoting these festivals. Traditional media, such as
newspapers and radio, were used to create awareness about the festivals, but poor financial
support from government limited the utilisation of these media. Facebook and Instagram aided
in promoting these festivals owing to affordability and accessibility to wider audience. The
benefits associated with the promotion of the festivals were educating children about indigenous
cultural practices, recreating festival aesthetics by easing the pressure of religious biases, and
support of corporate bodies. Oranyan Festival had more audience (110 followers) on Instagram
compared to Sango Festival (33 followers), while Sango Festival had more traffic (12,323
followers) on Facebook than Oranyan Festival (55 followers). Most of the tourists got
information on Sango (67.0%) and Oranyan (80.0%) Festivals from the social media.
Promotion media for Sango and Oranyan Festivals contribute immensely to the development of
tourism in Oyo town; the more the promotion of these festivals, the more the benefits to the host
community. Therefore, social networks should be prioritised to promote cultural festivals and
enhance opportunities for tourism development in Oyo town. |
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