Using SWOT Analysis for Handicraft Marketing: New Opportunities and Future Challenges – A Field Study on the Khan El-Khalili and Fustat Markets

This study aims to develop a marketing strategy for promoting handicraft industries in Cairo's Fatimid area, specifically in Khan El-Khalili and Fustat markets. It seeks to diagnose the challenges hindering the marketing of handicrafts, as well as the criteria influencing the choice or reluctance to engage in the handicrafts industry. Using SWOT analysis, the study identifies internal strengths and weaknesses and contrasts them with external opportunities and threats.
To determine the internal and external environments of Khan El-Khalili and Fustat markets, handicraft workshops were classified into five main categories: copper, gold and silver, leather, textiles and carpets, wood and mother-of-pearl, and glass and ceramics.
A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to a sample of workshop owners and workers, resulting in 282 valid responses (194 from Khan El-Khalili and 88 from Fustat Market).
The study concluded that the relative importance of strengths and weaknesses was 79.4% and 97%, respectively, while the relative importance of opportunities and threats was 96% and 81.6%, respectively.
This reflects a higher proportion of weaknesses compared to strengths, and a greater availability of opportunities relative to threats.
Thus, there is a pressing need to establish and implement an effective remedial marketing strategy to reduce weaknesses, capitalize on investment opportunities, and revitalize the handicrafts sector in Khan El-Khalili and Fustat markets, while expanding similar studies to other tourist areas across Egypt.
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