Practices and challenges of developing handicrafts as a core tourism product in Chencha and Konso, southern Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

The handicraft sector represents small-scale industries that produce various valuable objects primarily to supply to the travel and tourism sector. Therefore, as an integral part of the informal economy, handicrafts generate income, create employment opportunities, and thereby tackle poverty. The current study investigates the practices and challenges of the handicraft business in Chencha and Konso districts of southern Ethiopia. The study adopts a qualitative research approach with an exploratory design and collects data from 60 purposively and conveniently recruited participants. We utilized a longitudinal data set that has been collected between June 2019 and February 2021. Research findings reveal that despite communities in Chencha and Konso have been practicing handicraft production for a long, still, they rely on primitive production, marketing, and distribution strategies. Research findings also highlight that handicraft stakeholders fail to adequately support and empower artisans. This research identifies pressing challenges that limit the connection between the handicraft and tourism sectors and impede the development of the handicraft sector. Eventually, the study highlights policy implications to alleviate the challenges that constrain the successful development of handicraft tourism along with its limitations and future research directions.

KEYWORDS:

• Challenges and practices
• handicraft stakeholders
• handicraft tourism
• local communities
• Chencha and Konso
• southern Ethiopia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amare Wondirad

Amare Wondirad (Ph.D.) is currently employed as a Senior Lecturer at The University of the South Pacific, School of Tourism and Hospitality Management. He is also working as an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University, School of Hotel and Tourism, and The University of Gondar, Department of Tourism Management. His research interests include ecotourism, sustainable tourism, community-based tourism, culinary tourism, and cruise tourism.

Damene Bogale

Damene Bogale, (MA) has been working as a Lecturer at the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, Arbaminch University, Arbaminch, Ethiopia. His research interests include hospitality and hotel management affairs, quality service provisions in tourism destination areas, tourist behavior, and motivation, HRM & development in hospitality and tourism.

Ying Li

Ying Li works as an Associate Professor at Hebei Normal University, Department of Media and Communication, China, and is a Professor, Endicott College, Woosong University. Her research interests include cultural tourism, information technology, and tourism, media and tourism, and smart tourism.