Projected Destination Images on African Websites: Upgrading Branding Opportunities in the Global Tourism Value Chain

41 Pages Posted: 17 Jan 2009

See all articles by Jeroen van Wijk

Jeroen van Wijk

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Rotterdam School of Management (RSM); Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

Frank M. Go

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR)

Robert Govers

KU Leuven

Date Written: February 2008, 12

Abstract

This paper explores whether websites that offer a global audience virtual access to watering holes in game parks afford African nations opportunities to diminish their international isolation as tourism destinations. The present analysis examines a sample of almost 450 tourism websites representing Rwanda, Uganda and Mozambique. Two aspects are studied in particular: the websites’ technical and social infrastructures, including website ownership and networks, and website content, i.e. the projected destination image and opportunities to bridge the main supplier-consumer gaps in the global tourism value chain. The findings indicate that there is substantial foreign involvement in Africa’s online tourism infrastructure; furthermore, that the current projected images tend to reproduce foreign stereotypes. It concludes that the potential for upgrading branding capabilities could be sourced in indigenous African cultural attributes, both high and low culture, and in contexts of the past and the contemporary.

Keywords: tourism industry, global value chain, dynamic image formation, Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique, upgrading

JEL Classification: F23, M14, M, Q26, M31

Suggested Citation

van Wijk, Jeroen and Go, Frank M. and Govers, Robert, Projected Destination Images on African Websites: Upgrading Branding Opportunities in the Global Tourism Value Chain (February 2008, 12). ERIM Report Series Reference No. ERS-2008-079-ORG, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1327193

Jeroen Van Wijk (Contact Author)

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
Room T08-21
3000 DR Rotterdam, 3000 DR
Netherlands

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

Frank M. Go

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) ( email )

Burgemeester Oudlaan 50
3000 DR Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland 3062PA
Netherlands

Robert Govers

KU Leuven

Oude Markt 13
Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant 3000
Belgium

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