ABSTRACT
This work tries to analyze the effect of marketing on tourism development in Abia State with particular interest in selected tourism potentials in the State. The objectives of this research, were; to identify the various tourist destinations in the study area, to determine the medium media used in advertising the identified tourism destination in the study area, to verify the impacted of advertisement the level of patronage of the selected tourist site in Abia State, to ascertain ways of improving the methods of development for high rate of tourist to the destinations. Literatures on tourism were reviewed. A well-structured questionnaire was used in gathering the relevant data, simple descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequencies were used to analyze the data generated for the study. The findings of the study revealed that National War Museum, Umuahia was the most visited tourism destination in Abia State; with a result show that 56.8% of all the tourists have visited the destination, Wonder tree in Amakama was the second most visited destination with 32.7% of the tourist. The researcher hereby recommended that advertisement and marketing of tourist destinations in Abia State requires good budgetary funding and professional human resources in order to bring the tourism destinations in Abia State to the globally acceptable standard.T
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Declaration - - - - - - - - - i
Certification - - - - - - - - - ii
Dedication - - - - - - - - - iii
Acknowledgement - - - - - - - - iv
Table of contents - - - - - - - - iv
Abstract - - - - - - - - - iii
CHAPTER
ONE
1.1 Background
of the study - - - - - - - 1
1.2 Statement
of problem - - - - - - - 3
1.3 Objectives
of the study - - - - - - - 3
1.4 Research
questions - - - - - - - 4
1.5 Research
hypothesis - - - - - - - 4
1.6 Significance
of the study - - - - - - - 4
1.7 Scope
of the study - - - - - - - - 5
1.8 Limitations
of the study - - - - - - - 6
1.9 Definition
of terms - - - - - - - 7
CHAPTER
TWO
Review
of related literature
2.1 Historical
perspective of tourism in Nigeria - - - - 8
2.2 Tourism
development and infrastructure - - - - 10
2.3 Conceptual
clarification - - - - - - 14
2.3.1 Dimensions
of tourism - - - - - - 15
2.3.2 Nigeria’s tourism potential - - - - - - 16
2.4 tourism
and the economy of Abia state - - - - 21
2.5 Essential
requirements of tourism - - - - - 27
2.6 Tourism
marketing - - - - - - - 29
2.7 Tourism
planning - - - - - - - 32
2.8 Coastal
regions in Nigeria as a facet of tourism - - - 32
2.9 Summary
of literature review - - - - - - 37
CHAPTER
THRE
3.1 Research
design- - - - - - - - 40
3.2 Area
of population - - - - - - - 40
3.3 Determination
of the sample size - - - - - 40
3.4 Sampling
technique - - - - - - - 40
3.5 Method
of data collection - - - - - - 40
3.6 Sampling
technique - - - - - - - 41
3.7 Method
of data analysis - - - - - - 41
3.8 Model
of specification - - - - - - 42
3.9 Validity - - - - - - - - 42
3.10 Reliability - - - - - - - - 43
CHAPTER
FOUR
4.1 Presentation
and analysis of data - - - - - 44
4.3 Analysis
of data - - - - - - -
4.4 Test
of hypotheses - - - - - - - 49
4.5 Discussion
of findings - - - - - - 50
CHAPTER
FIVE
SUMMARY
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary - - - - - - - - 52
5.2 Conclusion - - - - - - - - 52
5.3 Recommendation - - - - - - - 53
References - - - - - - - - 55
Appendix - - - - - - - - 56
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background Of The Study
Tourism has become a popular global
leisure activity. Tourism can be domestic or international, and international
tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance
of payments.
Today, tourism can be described as a
major source of income for many countries, and affects the economy of both the
source and host countries, in some cases being of vital importance.
Businesses and public organizations
are increasingly interested in the economic impacts of tourism at national,
state, and local levels. One regularly hears claims that tourism supports lots
jobs in an area or that a festival or special event generated certain million
dollars in sales or income in a community. “Multiplier effects” are often cited
to capture secondary effects of tourism spending and show the wide range of
sectors in a community that may benefit from tourism.
Tourism’s economic benefits are
touted by the industry for a variety of reasons. Claims of tourism’s economic
significance give the industry greater respect among the business community,
public officials, and the public in general. This often translates into
decisions or public policies that are favorable to tourism. Community support
is important for tourism, as it is an activity that affects the entire
community. Tourism businesses depend extensively on each other as well as on
other businesses, government and residents of the local community.
Economic benefits and costs of
tourism reach virtually everyone in the region in one way or another. Economic
impact analyses provide tangible estimates of these economic interdependencies
and a better understanding of the role and importance of tourism in a region’s
economy.
Tourism activity also involves
economic costs, including the direct costs incurred by tourism businesses,
government costs for infrastructure to better serve tourists, as well as
congestion and related costs borne by individuals in the community. Community
decisions over tourism often involve debates between industry proponents
touting tourism’s economic impacts (benefits) and detractors emphasizing
tourism’s costs.
Given the fact that tourism can flourish in an
area only with the support of the area’s residents, it is felt that attitudes
and perception of residents towards tourism development and impact serves as
crucially important input in identifying the strategic and managerial
priorities of tourism as shown in Ekrem, Fuat, Huseyin & Sedat (2002). How
people understand culture and materials produced by it, affects the ways
cultural materials are managed or used. This means that proper understanding of
the importance of culture and its products will aid in its proper preservation
which will lead to suitable cultural tourism environment. Environment in this
context, cultural environment is the key component of tourism. Evidently
tourism would not exist without us having favourable perception of the cultural
attraction that exists in destination environment. As Urry (1995) observed, a
person’s wish to visit a particular environment is something that is socially
constructed as depends upon developing a cultural desire for a particular
landscape. Critically man’s understanding of culture plays a vital role for his
desire for a particular cultural destination and his attitude towards the
preservation and conservation of cultural materials.
Cultural tourism involves marketing of
culture. A person’s understanding of their culture and the importance of their
cultural heritage plays an important role on how they can be packaged for
tourism. When there is a proper perception of the impact the cultural material
in cultural tourism development, there will be a great chance of sustainable
cultural tourism development but where there is poor perception of the
importance of culture and cultural materials by the local community chances of
cultural tourism development in such area will be very minimal.
1.2 Statement Of The Problem
Several problems
of the world are environmentally, economically, socially and culturally
related. Arochukwu community is one of the leading tourist destinations in Abia
State mainly because of the rich wildlife resources it sustains and the scenic
beauty. Tourism has stimulated the development of a variety of allied
infrastructures and facilities, such as Eco lodges and camps, bridges and
culverts. The motivating force behind this study is based on the fact that in
the past, there has been no research on tourism development amongst the entire
people of Abia State. Based on this, I therefore, intended to examine the
socio-economic impact of tourism development in the entire communities of abia
state and as well profer ways of improving the sector.
Various problems
of tourism in abia state can be explained as follows
1. Poor
government’s attitude towards tourism development.
2. Lack
of infrastructural development in the sector.
3. Lack
of funding which has resulted to the poor state of the tourist sites in Abia
state. More of this can be seen more in the second chapter.
1.3
Objectives
Of The Study
The broad objective of this research
work is to analyze the effect of marketing on tourism development in Abia
State, while the specific objectives include to;
1. identify
the various tourist destinations in the study area.
2. determine
the medium/media used in advertising the identified tourism destination in the
study area.
3. determine
the influence of advertisement on the level of patronage of the selected
tourist site in Abia State.
1.4
Research
Questions
1. What are the various tourist destinations in the study area?
2. What are the medium/media
used in advertising the identified tourism destination areas?
3. What
is the influence of advertisement on the level of patronage of the selected
tourist site in Abia State?
1.5
Research
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses
were formulated to guide the study:
H0: There is no significant difference
between the mean opinions of literate and illiterate parents on their
perception of cultural tourism.
H02: There is no significant difference between
the mean opinions of male and female on their perception of cultural tourism.
H03: Employment opportunity does not
significantly relate with tourism development in Abia state.
H04: There is no significant relationship between
improvement in infrastructural facility and tourism development in the forest
communities in Abia state.
1.6
Significance
Of The Study
Tourism is an
important, even vital, source of income for many countries. Its importance is
recognized as an activity essential to the life of nations because of its
direct effects on the social, cultural, educational, and economic sectors of
national societies and on their international relations.
Tourism brings
in large amounts of income into a local economy in the form of payment for goods and services
needed by tourists, accounting for 30% of the world's trade of services, and 6% of
overall exports of goods and
services. It also creates opportunities for employment in the service sector
of the economy associated with tourism.
The service
industries which benefit from tourism include transportation services, such
as airlines, cruise ships, and taxicabs; hospitality services,
such as accommodations,
including hotels and resorts; and entertainment
venues, such as amusement
parks, shopping malls,
music venues, and theatres. This is in addition
to goods bought by tourists, including souvenirs, clothing and other supplies.
To evaluate the effects of policies
and actions which affect tourism activity either directly or in directly.
Tourism depends on many factors at both origins and destinations that are
frequently outside the direct control of the tourism industry itself. Economic
impact studies provide information to help decision makers better understand
the consequences of various actions on the tourism industry as well as on other
sectors of the economy. For example, increased air pollution standards have
been opposed in some regions due to the predicted economic consequences of the
closing of plants that cannot meet the new standards. Tourism interests counter
these arguments with estimates of the potential gains in income and jobs in
tourism industries that depend on good air quality and visibility.
1.7
Scope
Of The Study
This project covers extensively the
impacts of tourism to the economic development, implications and as well as a clear
exploitation of the various facets of tourism resident in Abia state.
Abia
State is a state in the south eastern part of Nigeria. The capital is Umuahia
and the major commercial city is Aba, formerly a British colonial government
outpost. The state was created in 1991 from part of Imo State and its citizens
are predominantly Igbo people (95% of population). It is one of the nine
constituent states of the Niger Delta region.
Abia
State was carved out of the former Imo State in 1991. The name "Abia"
is an abbreviation of four of the state's densely populated regions Aba, Bende,
Isuikwuato, and Afikpo. It is one of the thirty-six (36) States that constitute
the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Abia people are of the Igbo ethnic group who
predominate much of the Southeastern part of Nigeria. Their traditional
language is Igbo. English is widely spoken and serves as the official language
in governance and business. Abia's 2.4 million people are mainly Christians.
1.8
Limitations
of the Study
It is quite possible that
all studies have the tendency of facing one problem or the other. In this
respect, in carrying out the research work, there is tendency of coming across
some problems which might disturb the accuracy of the survey in achieving the
desired result. Below are the limiting factors that might hinder the
effectiveness of my research work:
Inability of the
respondent to cooperate with the researcher during the interview: This is one
of the limiting factors that can hinder the effectiveness of this research work.
The respondent might decide not to give out some information that is relevant
to the research thereby creating a vacuum of problems to the study. From past
experience, the respondent might be afraid to dish out information due to the
secrecy of his organization or he might think that the information will be used
against them. This has been one of the greatest setbacks to research work.
Secondly the inhabitants
of Abia state has not fully been able to appreciate the impact of tourism on
the state as a whole and it is the aim of this project to bridge that gap and
which isn’t an easy task in trying to educate most especially the rural
communities on the great advantage of the concept of tourism.
In
any research work, few problems are usually uncounted; this project was not
exempted from such problems. They include:
1. Financial problem is one of the
problems encountered in this project because the numbers of questionnaire
administered and interviews conducted were affected by financial inadequacy of
the researcher.
2.
Unwillingness and unfriendly attitudes of some respondents regarding the
disclosure of some vital information as regards to the activities of their
companies was another problem encountered in this research project.
3. Time is very essential in this type of
study because constant visit has to be made to the tourists sites to obtain
needed information while there were enough time for the researcher to carry out
the research study, the respondents always complained of no-time to respond to questionnaire
distributed to them and when it was eventually done it was almost late for the
intended purpose.
4. General
economic condition of the economy should not be overlooked. This is due to high
cost of living and the constant upward trend in the cost of material. These
factors will constitute major constraints on this project work and the researcher does not intend to
neglect them in his/ her research work.
1.9 Definition of Terms
During the course of this study there are
some key words that will be encountered and they are as listed below.
1) Socio-Economic impacts of tourism
This can be best described during this
study as the various attributes which has affected the economy of the area of
case study under tourism marketing.
2) Tourism
development
Tourism has always been an issue that has
great and drastic effect on an area both locally and internationally. Hence the
development of the sector is paramount so as to be able to maintain and as well
as sustain the areas involved.
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