COMMUNICATION MESSAGES FOR PROMOTION OF TOURISM IN HOMABAY COUNTY

This paper presents an assessment of the relationship between communication messages and tourism promotion. Homabay county located in Kenya's western tourists circuit is rich in tourists' attractions, but continue to receive very little tourists as a result of limited publicity. Promotion of tourism is necessary to enable the sector generate revenue to the county and improve the livelihood of the people around the area. The objective of the study was therefore to assess existing communication messages for promotion of tourism in Homabay county. In Kenya many tourists continue to ock certain destinations that have been frequently visited over the years, such as the Coastal and Nairobi Circuits. The study therefore sought to nd out if the missing link in tourism promotion in Homabay county was communication messages. The study was guided by Media framing theory. The approach used was mixed and data was collected using questionnaires that were issued to tourists, interviews with Homabay county government ofcials and with employees of Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS). Custodians of the selected tourists' sites were also interviewed. Homabay county integrated development plan was also analyzed. A sample of 93 tourists took part, the entire population of the remaining categories of the respondents was used in the study, totaling to 100 participants. Qualitative data was analysed thematically using manual open coding and NVivo 11 software while quantitative data was analysed statistically using SPSS 23.0. The study established that the promotional messages contained cultural and historical information while highlighting the uniqueness of the sites. Framing of messages for tourism promotion in a persuasive and convincing manner evokes in the actual or potential tourists the desire to visit a tourist's destination.