Analysis of the Linkage between Infrastructure Provision and Tourism Development in the Rural Areas of Rivers State, Nigeria, Using Canonical Correlation Analysis.

Abstract

The relationship between the level of infrastructural development and tourism performance in Rivers State, Nigeria, was investigated for purposes of rural development. To achieve this, thirty (30) communities were selected in the State and data collected on seventeen (17)key infrastructure facilities that could relate to tourism development in the communities. Four hundred and forty (440) copies of questionnaire were administered to both tourists and heads of households. The
major impediments to rural tourism development were found to include deficiencies in key infrastructure such as Hotels, Banks, Postal facilities, Road density and modern waste treatment facilities; all which returned low mean values. Seventeen infrastructure variables and eleven tourism performance variables were linked directly using canonical correlation with a view to identifying the major infrastructural blocks that govern tourism development in the study area. The first canonical variate revealed a linkage between Ethnic tourism and both road and accommodation related infrastructure; the second showed how poor road network development impacted negatively on agriculture in the study area; while the third showed that Historical tourism was positively related to the provision of communication, health and education related infrastructure. These variables reported canonical loadings of 0.50 and above. Based on such high loadings, It was recommended that these relationships be used to develop an infrastructure /tourism development model for the area.