African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure (May 2018)
Desert tourists experiences in Namibia: A Netnographic Approach.
Abstract
This paper employed a netnographic methodology to reconnoitre tourists’ experiences with regard to their visit to the Namib Desert’s Dune 7 in Walvis Bay, Namibia. Online generated content on TripAdvisor was examined for the purposes of classifying the factors influencing visitation, their positive and memorable experiences, challenges as well as the positive aspects of recommendation. The data that were used in this paper include 88 online reviews/narratives pertaining to their experiences with regard to visiting Dune 7. The findings revealed that, the key motivations for visiting the Namib Desert’s Dune 7 include education and learning, escapism, purposeful motives, reminiscence and entertainment motivations. More so, the tourists used the following words to evaluate their desert experiences in the context of Dune 7: “amazing experience”, “great experience with friendly and professional service”, “superb experience”, “fun”, “authentic experience”, “self-beneficial experience”, “novel experience”, “awesome”, “sense of accomplishment”, “felt happy”, “worth climbing”, “refreshing experience”, “mesmerizing experience”, “therapeutic experience”, “country experience”, “great food at restaurant”, “rewarding experience” and a “safe place”. A few of challenges were also identified that could affect the overall experiences of future tourists to the site. An understanding of the motivations and challenges is important for the development of sustainable tourism in desert environments in Namibia. Further research is however required for other destinations such as Sossusvlei as well as other desert attractions in the region. Data gathered in this study was extracted from TripAdvisor and future studies must also extract data using other platforms such as Facebook.
