Design Strategy for Revitalising Craft Tourism Experiences in Argungu, Kebbi State

Argungu, in Kebbi State, North West Nigeria, is renowned internationally for its annual Fishing and Cultural Festival but offers limited designed tourist experience infrastructure beyond the core festival event, resulting in short visitor dwell times and modest economic spillover into local craft and hospitality enterprises. This study develops a design strategy for revitalising craft tourism experiences in Argungu through environmental design, craft product development, and interpretive communication interventions. A tourism experience audit involving visits by thirty domestic and international tourists documented key experience gaps including absent craft demonstration spaces, poor interpretive signage at heritage sites, inadequate visitor orientation infrastructure, and limited curated craft retail environments. Stakeholder consultations with the Kebbi State Tourism Board, Argungu Emirate Council, and twenty-two craft producers contributed cultural knowledge, community priorities, and commercial ambitions to the design strategy framework. The resulting strategy comprises four interconnected design intervention streams: a Craft Village spatial design concept, a wayfinding and interpretive signage system for heritage routes, a branded Argungu Craft Collection product development programme, and a training curriculum for craft storytelling guides. Prototype elements from each stream are developed and reviewed by the Kebbi State Tourism Board and craft producer representatives. Recommendations include phased implementation with UNESCO Creative Cities programme support and integration of the design strategy into Kebbi State's cultural economy development plan. Keywords: craft tourism, design strategy, Argungu, Kebbi State, cultural economy.