The Historical and Cultural Value of Al Koot Fort - Research Paper Example

The Historical and Cultural Value of Al Koot Fort Research II 2T3A Abdelrhman Moussa 2112 Rami Mansour 20092242 Dr. Dan Musinguzi TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Page Contents Page 2 Introduction 3 Problem Description 5 Problem Statement 6 Research Questions 6 LITERATURE REVIEW 6 Value and the Importance of Historical Forts 7 Protection of the Cultural Heritages 8 Willingness to Pay From Customers 9 Types of Cultural Heritage 10 Tangible & Intangible Heritage 10 The Cycle of Heritage 11 Conceptual Model 11 METHODOLOGY 12 Research Design 13 Data Analysis 14 CONCLUSION 23 REFERENCE LIST 24 Introduction The world has thousands of cultural and heritage sites. It is estimated that there are 878 world heritages in 138 countries with “outstanding universal value,” 679 sites with cultural values, and another 174 sites with natural values (UNESCO, 2011). Heritage and culture forms an integral part of the leisure and tourism. The current world economies largely depend on these non-market goods to create economic value. The national heritages should, therefore, be treated with most care in terms of sustainability to store their value for years to come. It is the value placed on a heritage that makes the visitors from different corners of the word to have the will to pay or to go to the alternative sites that gives more value. Al Koot Fort is one such outstanding and valuable site and it is registered by UNESCO as a world heritage. A1 Koot Fort or Doha Fort is a famous tourist attraction site located in Doha. The site lies at the center of the famously known Souq Waqif of Doha and the other section of the old town. Construction of the site took place in 19th century where it initially started as a police post and later being changed into a museum. Later in the year 1978, the whole of the facility underwent refurbishment that in this case, lead to the loss of some its valuable tourist attraction features. However, the authorities in the Qatari government presently consider the option of returning the port to the project neighboring it in Souq Waqif (Ruijgrok, 2006 p.207). A1 Koot Fort may not be as old as some of the forts found in the Middle East region. The site has been well maintained and most of its features preserved making it of high value. Most significant tourist attraction sites in Qatar as it holds a lot of history about the country especially in relation to the cultural values. The fort is a symbol and an insight into the culture and the lifestyle, and the architecture that primary took place during the seismic shift. This was at the time when the Turkish conquered Qatar in 1880, and A1 Koot fort served as the point where the military used for their defensive purposes. The fort has a wide variety of purposes, for instance, as a museum, the fort serves the purposes of exhibiting the Qatari traditional handicrafts, and the work of gold, and the arts creativity from the individuals, the paintings, and even the old age photographs. In addition, the museum currently hosts the cultural exhibitions such as the fishing equipment, wooden ornaments, techniques that relates with the gypsum burning, boat building, and rope weaving features. Since it was also a military site, A1 Koot Fort also has other elementary cultural attraction features such as the weapons and the firearms (Ruijgrok, 2006 p.209). In terms of design A1 Koot Fort is very unique. It has a square shape of the courtyard enclosed in its towering wall. Similarly, there exist other circular towers within the three corners while the fourth corner has a rectangular tower with it (Ruijgrok, 2006 p.212). It is evident that A1 Koot Fort has great cultural historical value and forms a significant part of the Qatar history. Consequently, the research considers an important area of study for this project because of the many cultural values (Brian, Poria, & Reichel, 2006 p.279). Some heritage sites are facing extinction such as the purple island in Qatar, because of lack of care from the government and the organizations that should be responsible for those sites. It’s not necessary for the sites to be historical, natural or scientific, also authenticity and integrity properties are important to take in consideration too to save culture or history of some places. The culture heritage sites should meet with the outstanding universal values. For instance, the cultural heritage sites should enhance the development of the human nature through a given period. At the same time, sites such as the A1 Koot Fort should encompass the enhancement of the integration of the human cultures across the various communities available in the country. Through such incidences, the available communities in the country would feel part of the structure and give it the necessary support required for its success as a tourist attraction site. In addition, the inclusion of A1 Koot Fort as a cultural attraction site should ensure that it promotes the conservation of the tradition values of the communities that surrounds the port. As such, the fort would in turn get the best support across the various sections of the community in terms of payment and also on any other kind of support that may seem to be of beneficial towards the prosperity of the port in general. Finally, the fort should also ensure that promotes the conservation of other life forms species and the entire environment that it covers. It is through the life forms that in the future may form part of the elements taken in the museum for viewing by the potential tourists and as a result would earn income to the fort and the entire country as a whole. In addition, the fort should ensure that it promotes the conservation of the physicality of the landforms that it lies in so that to reduce the loss of the dignity of the area covered by it (Provins, Pearce, Ozdemiroglu, Mourato, & Morse-Jones, 2008 p.133). The culture heritage sites should meet with the outstanding universal values. Till 2004, heritage sites that are listed under UNESCO were selected based on 10 criteria, 6 cultural and 4 natural (UNESCO, 2005). Some of the select few UNESCO criteria included to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius include to exhibit cultural, architecture, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design. The sites have cultural traditionliving or which has disappeared. Others include, being directly or tangibly associated with events, living traditions, and with ideas. And lastly, to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance and to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earths history. In this research, we look at the importance of Qatari historical tourist sites and the importance of history for the population as well as the importance of maintaining it and how to do so. We have discussed some of the methods on how to develop and maintain the tourist attractions, we chose the Forts in Qatar because it’s most common in Qatar which has an important history. Al Koot Fort was chosen out of several others, but some problems were encountered along the way. The first of which is the marketing and advertising. It was discovered that that very few people knows about these forts and even fewer people are interested in the forts and as a result the Country does not give enough attention through their tourism authority which is better known as QTA. Al Koot Fort was chosen because it was observed that it is one of the most important Forts in Qatar for two reasons; first, the unique location, and secondly its history having been built in the early centuries and importance of who built the place. Problem Description In most cases all over the world, including Qatar, nations do struggle to upgrade the existing cultural sites with the intention of enhancing the history and the cultural values of the country. A1 Koot Fort being an example in this case, is a symbol of efforts taken by the governments and that of Qatar to renovate to ensure that the site looks more decent and attracts more tourists and also contribute towards creating the urge to pay for visiting the site. For example, specialists should come and observe the site and see what needs to be done in order to keep it safe and develop it, and also focusing on the infrastructure and sustainability factors. Failure to give the site the proper attention as early as possible may make it lose its importance of its historical and the cultural values and entirely depriving the government the revenue levied on tourists visiting the site (Stone, 2011 p.87). Marketing the place is also very important especially when it comes to locals or residents who never heard or have known nothing about this site and the story behind it. For instance, the surrounding communities may not be aware of the valuable items in the museum (Biran, Poria, & Reichel, (2006 p.281). As such, they may not find the need to get into the facility and if possible pay after getting pleased. If that’s the case for a fort located in the middle of Doha, then conditions must be worse for other forts located far away (Provins, Pearce, Ozdemiroglu, Mourato, & Morse-Jones, 2008 p.138). There is not only need for improving, developing and marketing, but also giving the historical sites better ways to be advertised and marketed to share its history with the locals, residents and tourist while also achieving the expectations of the tourism resource development and the expectations of the tourists who expect to experience the authenticity of this culture heritage site. The study seeks to show the importance of preserving, improving, developing, and marketing culture heritage sites and how economic benefits can be derived (Stone, 2011 p.96). Problem Statement What can be done to preserve Al Koot Fort as a tourism attraction? Research Questions How important is visiting Al Koot fort in Doha? What can be done to make Al Koot fort a main tourist attraction? To what level are the residents willing to pay in order to preserve Al Koot Fort? How can Al Koot fort be preserved? What is the significance of Al Koot fort in the tourism industry of Qatar? LITERATURE REVIEW Currently, there are various articles (such as books, journals, newspapers, and magazines, etc.) that have been found which cover the material related to this study including preserving, marketing, developing, and improving the historical and cultural heritage sites. Furthermore, the following literature review will include different methods and opinions in order to conduct further information that is essential for the research at hand (Provins, Pearce, Ozdemiroglu, Mourato, & Morse-Jones, 2008 p.149). Value and the Importance of Historical Forts Historical forts are important components of the tourism industry that lead us to ask how non-market sites such as Al Koot Fort may be valued “in view of the difficulty involved in defining cultural heritage” (Herrero, 2004. p56). Nowadays cultural heritage tourism is taken more seriously in the world because of its high effectiveness on all the countries sectors by offering jobs and raising the economical level as "cultural tourism creates job and wealth" (Bedate, 2004 p65). Marketing the fort will bring more investment to the region which means raising the positive economic impact on the locals and all countries’ sectors as “all investment projects have some form of economic impact on society” (Bowiz, 2009 p45). Hence, it is foreseen that marketing actions and campaigns will hopefully carry a positive impact on the economic situation. Our strategy and campaign will lead us to achieve our marketing objectives as intended. We had set several objectives that will enhance the marketing profit in the long term, which will be observed by the government and tourism sectors (Provins, Pearce, Ozdemiroglu, Mourato, & Morse-Jones, 2008 p.154). One factor to consider when valueing a heritage or historical site is the essence of the value. Hall and McArthur (1993. p48) have argued that the value of a site shifts according to the peoples interest in the place and to what they give most attention and significance. Furthermore, they have stated that there four different types of values that people give to these sites, and these values are economic, social, political, and scientific (Provins, Pearce, Ozdemiroglu, Mourato, & Morse-Jones, 2008 p.158). Firstly, the economic value of a site is represented in the place’s importance when it comes to receiving income through tourists and visitors who are interested. Due to the revenue gained, this is considered as an economic significance (Biran, Poria, & Reichel, (2006 p.286). Secondly, there is the social significance which is given to the site by adhering to the importance of this site to the people’s identity and culture. Thirdly, there is the political significance which is given to a site which serves for political actions. And lastly, there is the scientific significance which is given to sites and locations which serve scientific purposes such as research and similar ideas related (Provins, Pearce, Ozdemiroglu, Mourato, & Morse-Jones, 2008 p.163). It is unfortunate that cultural and heritage sites may not be given a value as easily as products in the market as every site differs from the next according to the culture and identity. However, an essential idea is that the people of a country must be taught the importance of having these sites within their nation in order to gain an increasing acceptance towards the touristic sites (Provins, Pearce, Ozdemiroglu, Mourato, & Morse-Jones, 2008 p.167). Continuing on the discussion placed by Chiam it is stated that according to the demand of the people towards historical and heritage sites is what plays the major role in deciding whether the customers would be willing to pay in order to visit these sites. Hence, it is rather important for any country to reassure the importance of these sites to the population as well as the tourists in the hope of raising the demand which would eventually lead to higher willingness of visitors to pay. Ultimately, these actions will result in a rise of revenue which can be used for preserving and developing the sites (Provins, Pearce, Ozdemiroglu, Mourato, & Morse-Jones, 2008 p.169). Satisfied tourists are the key factor in formation of tourism value to start a healthy future attraction. These days, tourist satisfaction is considered as corporate levels strategies and it’s a main source of a successful entrepreneurship. Regarding tourist satisfaction (Uzzell, 1998), in an organization as of now is becoming an important competition factor in the business field The region needs to be involved by the governments and receive support from the UNESCO by researching about the history of the attraction as well advertise it, this will benefit the whole country and start raising its sustainability level. (Buckley, 2004. p43) Using fermata strategy to focus on the site resources in result to raise the national interest as well set some resources that will have kind of reasonable chances to carrying the strategy. Protection of the Cultural Heritages Protecting a cultural or heritage site is a main factor in the rule of the site value, by managing the number of tourist and including techniques that will control the limit impacts, on the other hand, allowing the highest enjoyment. (Paul, 2002. p36) Cultural and natural heritage places are priceless treasures because of how it affects the countries’ legacy and its economic growth (Biran, Poria, & Reichel, (2006 p. 292). On the other hand, more about the advantages of this treasure is that it has no limit for its profit income throughout the tourists visit and also events that will take place there, as well the support that will take place from the organizations all around the world which would cover the place by research studies and as well as advertising it as a tourist region (Frey, 2013. p54). There are several reasons for visiting different types of tourism attractions (Prentice, 1998. p32) (Timothy and Boyd, 2003. p63). According to Shackley that one of those reasons is visiting religious places in purpose of seeing the great works of art and beauty of the architecture. According to (Uzzell,1996), one historic site can be visited by different ages for different reasons at different points of time; Examples of Churches are the Holy Sepulcher and the Auschwitz and this explains the purpose to learn about heritage tourism in ways. On the other hand there are those who are visiting in only on relaxation and comfort concepts. (Falk and Dirking, 2002 p.66). Preserving the history and historical places with a consideration of the environmental conservation and study of these assets helps appreciate and understand why these sites carry historical and environmental assets. (Pearce and Mourato,1998. p72). Preserving the discussion in the same area of willingness of customers to pay, it is worth mentioning that Marine Le Gall-Ely 2009. p55) has discussed and stated the importance of successfully assessing the customers and visitors’ perception of the pricing. Assessing this factor will help the concerned parties evaluate how much a customer would be willing to pay in order to visit a site (Biran, Poria, & Reichel, 2006 p.299). Willingness to Pay From Customers Continuing the discussion of customers payment and willingness to give out of their own money to visit and see a historical site, Chiam have stated that there are three appropriate methods which can be used to measure the consumers willingness to pay. These methods are the State Preference method which collects information from the people who visit the site by asking them hypothetical questions, and the second method is the Revealed Preference method which collects data by observing the customers actions. Both methods help to successfully assess the consumers willingness to pay which will lead to better decision making towards raising the importance and awareness of a site or whether to not state a price or to even raise prices (Eagles, 2009 p.233). The third assessment method for evaluating consumers’ willingness to pay would be The Contingent Valuation Method, or CVM, and this method is said to be the most used. The process of this valuation is handing out a survey which allows the consumers to place themselves in hypothetical solutions in which they have the opportunity to purchase or pay for public goods. This method has accurate results since it puts in and derives from different subjective theories of which are economic, social, and psychological. The presence of these theories will help the survey conducted better assess the situation and willingness to pay (Eagles, 2009 p.237). Considering the limited resources which are offered in most circumstances, the CVM method is seen to be very appropriate as it does not need much of resources to be conducted and successfully analyzed. Furthermore, this method’s credibility is backed up by the usage of published researchers such as Salazar and Marques in different cases (Del Saz Salazar & Montagud Marques, 2005 p.70). Types of Cultural Heritage Cultural heritage may fall into three categories. The categories are the; Environment oriented built-in types such as the buildings, towns and the archeological sites or evolutions Categories derived from the nature of the surrounding environment such as the rural features or landscapes, the coastal features and the existing agricultural practices Other categories of the cultural heritage are the artifacts which include the books, documentaries, objects, and pictures (Biran, Poria, & Reichel, 2006 p.303). Tangible & Intangible Heritage Tangible cultural heritages include the elements such as the physical features that define the past history of a given region such as artifacts, buildings or the existing landscapes (Del Saz Salazar & Montagud Marques, 2005 p.73). However, there are also the intangible types of cultural heritage such as the voices values, traditions and the oral history. However, the enhancement of this type of heritage does take place through cuisine, clothing, and of shelter, technologies and traditional skills , religious ceremonies, storytelling and performing arts. For this reason, there is also need to enhance the conservation of the both the tangible and the intangible types of cultural heritages (Eagles, 2009 p.240). The Cycle of Heritage According to the cycle of the heritage diagram below, its value is in the fact that it promotes the understanding of the past as a component of the future (Del Saz Salazar & Montagud Marques, 2005 p.76). Figure 2: The Cycle of Heritage Conceptual Model Figure 3: Conceptual Model The model represents a logical uplift and value creation in Al Koot Fort. Firstly, there is the need to create value to the site by placing a price which would help gain revenue needed for site preservation (Alberini, Rosato & Turvani, 2006 p.75). Secondly, there is the CVM assessment of customers’ willingness to pay which will help in successfully starting a price which will prove suitable for the customers. Lastly, there are the important factors of the site’s benefit to the country on a social and economic level which will support the preservation of the site (Eagles, 2009 p.244). METHODOLOGY AL Koot Fort is located in the middle of the Doha city, built in 1927 by Sheikh Abdullah bin Qassim Al-Thani, who was the governor of Qatar from 1913-1949, the original purpose of building this fort was in the beginning to be used as a police station in 1880. But in 1906 it was turned into a prison. Although other sources were saying that the reason of building this fort was to protect Souq Waqif, a local market, from thieves. The fort was thereafter turned to a museum in 1978 (Eagles, 2009 p.247). The reason behind choosing this fort comes to its rich history and the importance of this site as a tourism icon. Fort plays location a big role, middle of Doha city, and can be reached easily by tourists and visitors. The main focus in the report will be floating around the Marketing and Promotion plans of this site and how it could develop its tourism attraction regionally and internationally (Clarke, 2010 p148). Research Design Quantitative data will be vital since it confirms the validity of the tests in theoretical analysis. The study employed quantitative approaches to investigate on the prediction of aggregate being (Alberini, Rosato& Turvani, 2006 p.82).a quantitative method concentrate in asking the participants their opinions in an intelligent manner to come up with hard facts and data/ statistics. To get good results it is ideal that the research engage a relatively large data sample. A survey was conducted amongst the people living in and around Al Koot fort with the aim of getting the perception with which these population have towards the site. The results and analysis will be used to understand and interpret the best way forward for improving and making changes to the site to bring more attention of the site to the people. Qatar youth have been observed to be the largest population that loves travel and exploring other site in Qatar and across the globe. Fig 4: Data organization in quantitative research Data Analysis The quantitative data was analyzed using a descriptive statistics method to determine the frequency count percentage as well what is it means. Using quantitative data, the questionnaires that were organized will aid in collecting the data and analyzing it with the (SPSS) Statistical Package for the Social Sciences which will help to save a lot of time and organize all the data easily. Result and Discussion Respondents’ Age Group From the fifty respondents data, the majority were in the age category of 18-24 years representing 28%. Only 10% of respondents were older than 50 years Respondents Gender The majority of respondents were males taking 60%. Female respondents were 40%. This can be attributed to the fact men were mostly likely to be regular visitors of the museum. Respondents Education Level 48% of the respondents had attained high school education level. 32% had bachelor’s degree. Those with graduate degree were 10% for both masters and PhD. Most of the respondents were local residents taking 54% while the Tourist were the least taking 12%. Expatriates were 34% of the total population. Table showing the perceptions of the respondents at a scale of 1 to 5 (n = 50)  Dimension 1 2 3 4 5   Mean   Sd f % f % f % f % f % People can learn something by visiting the site 0 0 4 8 5 10 19 38 22 44 1.82 0.919 Al Koot fort is important in the lives of residents of Qatar 0 0 1 2 7 14 15 30 27 54 1.64 0.802 Respondents willing to pay to preserve Al Koot 1 10 9 18 0 0 14 28 22 44 2.22 1.433 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree, 5=strongly agree. SD, Standard deviation f, frequency Source; Authors analysis 2015 Percentage of respondents willing to pay to preserve Al Koot Dimension Frequency (n = 50) Valid Percent No 14 28.0 Yes 36 72.0 The table shows that 72% of the respondents were WTP to preserve the Museum. The reasons of the 28% that were not willing to pay for the preservation of the museum are outlined in the Table below. Reasons of not willing to pay to preserve Reasons for Not WTP (n = 14) (%) Not supposed to pay for protection of Al Koot 57.1 Satisfied with current status of Al Koot 21.4 Cannot afford to pay for the protection of Al Koot 14.3 Have other priority/Use money in other ways 7.1 Distribution of the amount the respondents are willing to Pay The willingness of the respondents is as shown in the chart. 28% were not willing to pay for the preservation and were recorded as missing. Out of 50 respondents, 28% were willing to pay 10-50 QAR. Only 8% were willing to pay above 500 QAR. The chart above shows perceptions of the respondents on how they best think the museum would be protected and preserved. Out of the 50 respondents, 24 % thinks that the best way would be to educate the residents about the cultural significance of Al Koot fort. The least percent of 8% thinks that the best way would be through conducting research about the fort. The significance of the museum as perceived by the respondents was as shown in graph. Most of the respondents think that the most significance issue of the fort to the tourism industry is because it contributes Qatar’s cultural base. Only 8% believe that it is a cultural pride among the residents. 26% believed that the fort contributes towards tourism revenue. LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A number of limitations arose during the execution of the research. The primary constraint to this study was the limited availability of time to conduct the research and inadequate resources (Bowitz and Ibenholt, 2009). The time to conduct the research was not adequate and, as a result, the study worked with only 50 participants. To find authoritative results, it is always prudent to use big sample but time limited the ability to handle more than 50 samples. The fact that only 50 people were questioned means that the results cannot be a total convincing and conclusive results. Again, the resources only allowed for a small sample study. If the resources and time were available, a bigger sample would have been engaged. The general design of the questionnaires used in the study also posed limitations on the study. The respondents were given the questionnaires that they filled and returned for analysis (Brian et al., 2006). The questionnaires were closed in nature, and they were only one-off questions. The use of closed questionnaires closed the option of asking the follow-up questions. There was no use of the face-to-face interview to give a more convincing and follow up perceptions. There is need to conduct the research with the availability of resources and time where more participants are involved. The research should also include a mix of questionnaires, surveys, and face-to-face interviews. The CVM (Continent Valuation Method) was adopted for the study. The CVM is known to bring certain limitations. Generally people do seem to focus on the item to be valued and as a result giving more significance to the services or goods that they would since they have been asked about it. There is, therefore, bias on participants’ response (Eagles, 2009). CONCLUSION The principal function of the research study was to evaluate the value and the importance of the A1 Koot Foot Fort as cultural heritage attraction in the development of the tourism in Qatar region. Supporting the Qatari national cultural and heritage sites not only contributes towards economic benefits through fee levies, it also preserves the community culture. Preserving the site and creating awareness, marketing globally will ensure that the site remains relevant in the history of Qatar. REFERENCE LIST Alberini, A., Rosato, P., & Turvani, M. (2006). Valuing complex natural resource systems. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Biran, A., Poria, Y., & Reichel, A. (2006). 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Journal for Nature Conservation, 23, 19-26. doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2014.11.001 Appendix Read More