Developing a Cultural Tourism Management Framework for Traditional Arts and Crafts Sites in Kano State

Kano State's traditional arts and crafts sector, including Hausa leather work, embroidery, and dyeing in the Kofar Mata dye pits, represents a significant cultural tourism resource whose management requires professional frameworks integrating heritage conservation, visitor experience design, and artisan livelihood support. This study developed a cultural tourism management framework for traditional arts and crafts sites in Kano, North West Nigeria. A professional development methodology was employed, drawing on site assessments at six major craft heritage sites, structured interviews with 18 site managers, craft producers, and tourism officers from the Kano State Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and comparative review of cultural tourism management frameworks from Morocco, Ghana, and South Africa. Site assessments revealed inadequate visitor infrastructure at 83.3 percent of sites, absent interpretation systems at 100 percent, and unsustainable artisan income dependency on undercutting tourist bargaining at all sites. The framework developed encompasses four management pillars: heritage conservation standards, visitor experience programming, artisan economic empowerment, and institutional governance structures. Specific provisions include interpretation panel design standards, guided tour programme design, fair trade pricing model adoption, craft skills certification, and digital discovery infrastructure. Expert review by eight cultural heritage and tourism management specialists confirmed the framework's operational coherence and alignment with UNESCO creative cities principles. The study recommends adoption by the Kano State Tourism Board as the baseline management standard for all declared heritage craft sites and integration with the Kano State Creative Industry Policy.

Keywords: cultural tourism management, traditional crafts, heritage site, Kano State, artisan economy