| dc.description.abstract | Tourism is an ever-growing service industry with great development potential. It has become
one of the most important drivers of socio-economic development worldwide and has attracted
interest for research. Many nations rely on tourism industry as a key source for foreign
exchange, private sector growth, infrastructure development, and poverty alleviation in terms
of employment opportunities and improvement of the welfare of the people in tourist
destinations. According to United Nation World Tourism Organization, development agencies
and policymakers are increasingly advocating tourism as an effective way to reduce poverty in
least-developed countries. However, lack of proper marketing strategies is a challenge in many
county governments, posing further challenge in tourism performance. The general objective
of the study was to assess the effect of destination marketing on tourism performance in West
Pokot County. Specifically, the study sought to establish the influence of awareness creation,
developing new markets, advertising and branding on tourism performance in west Pokot
County. To achieve these objectives, descriptive research design was used. Target population
consisted of employees of hotels, officials of tour firms and officers in the ministry of tourism
in the County Government of West Pokot. Purposive sampling technique was used and a total
of 41 respondents selected. Data was collected using structured questionnaires and analyzed
using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study established that 41.8 % of the changes in
tourism performance in West Pokot County was attributed to destination marketing. The P-
value was 0.000 indicating that destination marketing had a significant influence on tourism
performance of west Pokot County. The study recommends that destination marketing should
be promoted by all the stakeholders involved and the funds allocated to destination marketing
should be increased. This will promote the performance of tourism since destination marketing
increases awareness among domestic and foreign tourists. | en_US |
