Analysis of the Socio-economic impacts of Tourism in Rural Areas of South-South Nigeria
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Abstract
This study investigated the socio-economic impacts of tourism as well as the underlying
dimension of tourism impact in rural South-South Nigeria. A sample of 30 rural tourism points
was randomly selected. Data generated from the National Bureau of Statistic on tourism impacts in the South-South zone of Nigeria was used for the analysis. Descriptive Statistics as well as Factor Analysis were employed to analyze the impacts of tourism and to generate the underlying dimension of the impacts. Findings showed an abysmally low mean values on variables measuring socio-economic impacts. Also, Factor Analysis reveals five key dimensions of tourism impact to include employment, population stability, social connection, rural industrialization and improvement in income /living standard. On the whole, 70% of the sampled tourism points suffered setbacks on the five dimensions of tourism impact highlighted in the study. These findings, by far, have strong policy implications for stimulating the tourism sector through institutional, structural and technical re-alignment of the tourism industry to yield the desired socioeconomic impacts in rural areas. It was recommended among others that the structure of tourism planning should be decentralized to recognize rural peoples’ idea on tourism development in their domain.
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