Cultural capital, digital capital and stakeholder partnerships: a holy trinity for a sustainable cultural tourism trajectory

Abstract

In many developing countries, the tourism sector is used as a possible panacea for economic growth and poverty alleviation. This approach however is guided by policies that exhibit chronic disconnections among stakeholders in the culture and tourism sectors of the economy. Digital capital in the form of common website should be a point of convergence for policy makers, host communities and tourists (cultural) to increase the Tourism Consumption Expenditure (TCE). The research is informed by the desire to consider cultural tourism as a niche that does not call for deployments of huge financial resources. The objectives of the study were to establish stakeholders’ views on the existence of partnerships, to ascertain the benefits of digital capital in sustainable cultural tourism and to find out the challenges that stakeholders encounter in forging partnerships as well as employing digital capital in sustainable cultural tourism. Qualitative research was used and 15 interviews were conducted with stakeholders in the culture and tourism sector. The findings indicated that the country stood to benefit from interactions between digital capital and partnerships. The benefits to be realised were way off the mark due to lack of a common purpose to sell effectively the country’s cultural assets. The triad of digital capital, cultural capital and partnerships was applauded by all the respondents. The task to initiate the adoption of digital capital for the benefit of the country was given to the government. The study recommends tourism and culture stakeholders and ICT technical partners be brought together to develop a common digital platform whose purpose is to market the cultural capital that is available in Zimbabwe. It is also recommended that partnerships and digital capital adoption be enforced by the government as it is the overall guardian of the national resources.