Tourism involves the travelling of people from one country to another country or within a country. The connection between tourism and indigenous is that the tourism industry must include traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) because it will help to enhance their tourism products and increase benefits to the local community.
However, failure to incorporate TEK will lead to lack of leaping maximum benefits. Moreover, ignoring TEK and the local practices and resource management will continue the dispossession pattern and displacement mainly linked with external tourism development.
Tourism marketing can incorporate the indigenous people and their practices. The tourism products can be developed around the indigenous people’s culture and practices. Tourists then will come and experience the culture of the people in the raw form because it will be appealing to them.
Besides, the indigenous people’s activities may attract people that love the outdoors. The visitors will come, and visit the community especially if the locals are involved as they will welcome them and share their culture hence it will be a win- win for all the stakeholders. Therefore, marketers should incorporate the environmental practices of the indigenous communities to expand the tourism scope.
More importantly, ecotourism should be guided by market demand so that the products created do not become short lived and disappear. Furthermore, indigenous tourism will be appealing if the artifacts tourists buy are authentic because they will shun fake ones although some will buy them as souvenirs.
On the contrary, the image the marketers portray to the tourists in their indigenous tourism products may not be the actual picture on the ground, and it may lead to disappointments. However, it is important to have a positive image of the indigenous locations to attract the tourists. The marketers should provide appropriate images of the indigenous communities to avoid distortion and stereotyping.
Besides, indigenous tourism provides added value for tourists involved in mainstream tourism and with proper links, tourists will be able to experience the indigenous communities. The links will provide information and contact with the indigenous communities and enable the tourists to experience indigenous tourism.
The links also help the marketers to determine the value of goods and services and identify potential markets and the seasonal trends. The information they gather from the links help in their marketing campaigns to tourists.
More importantly, tourism should involve the indigenous community. They should take part in decision making so that they can also own the tourism, and they will embrace it instead of seeing the tourists as intruders, and an interruption of their way of life.
Through the involvement of the locals they will help to conserve the environment and hence tourism will go on for a long time because they will take part in their own way and terms.
Finally, indigenous tourism can open up more opportunities for the local communities to make money by opening up their environment to tourists. They offer an experience that is not found in any other place. If the environment is sustained through cooperation of the locals and the tourism industry such attractions will be sought for long.
On the other hand, indigenous tourism has challenges such as stereotype and such problems can be overcome through proper integration of all the stakeholders to increase the marketability of indigenous tourist locations. Indigenous tourism is bound to remain a very relevant part of tourism and will provide income and empower many communities.