ABSTRACT
The tourism Industry, a service provider, plays an immense role in the development of Nigeria. Apart from its contribution to GDP, it also serves as a source of employment for many people. This study was set out to ascertain the influence of tourism destination characteristics on tourists’ patronage in Tinapa Resort, Cross River State Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives were to; ascertain the effect of tourism destination architecture on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria; identify the effect of infrastructure quality on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria; determine the effect of tourism destination landscape on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria; and to examine the effect of tourism destination events on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population covered tourists to the Tinapa Business Resort, Cross River State, Nigeria. To obtain the sample size for the study, purposive sampling was adopted. The study hypotheses were analysed using simple regression model. All analyses were done electronically using the SPSS software version 20.0. The study result revealed that tourism architecture has positive and significant effect on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State. It was revealed in the study that tourism infrastructure quality has positive and significant effect on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State. Regression analysis in the study revealed that tourism landscape has positive and significant effect on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State. The study result further revealed that tourism events has positive and significant effect on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State. To increase tourists’ patronage in Tinapa business resort, the study recommended that the government should provide more infrastructural facilities in the resort. Facilities such as hotels, parking space and good road networking should be provided in the resort. Though these facilities exist at the moment, it is not enough to meet the need of the visitors, especially during the festive period. Providing these facilities will enhance and direct actions towards developing the resort more as a tourist destination. More cultural and traditional events should be hosted and organized within the resort to help attract more visitors and provide the local people and the tourism support services more opportunity to improve their economic status.
TABLES OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Declaration ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Table of Contents vii
List of Tables xi
List of Figures xii
Abstract xiv
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background of the study 1
1.2 Statement of the problem 3
1.3 Objectives of the study 4
1.4 Research Questions 5
1.5 Statement of Hypotheses 5
1.6 Significance of the study 5
1.7 Scope of the study 6
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 8
2.1 Conceptual Framework 8
2.1.1 The concept of tourism 8
2.1.2 Types and forms of Tourism 10
2.1.3 Growth of Tourism marketing in Nigeria 14
2.1.4 Trends in Tourism Development in Nigeria 17
2.1.4.1 Tourism Development in Cross River State, Nigeria 20
2.1.5 Relevance of Tourism in economic development of Nigeria 24
2.1.5.1 Tourism contribution to GDP in Nigeria 25
2.1.5.2 Tourism contribution to employment 26
2.1.5.3 Tourism contribution to taxation 26
2.1.6 The challenges of tourism development in Nigeria 27
2.1.7 Government role in tourism development in Nigeria 29
2.1.8 Tourism Products and services in Nigeria 32
2.1.8.1 Natural Features 32
2.1.8.2 Tourist Arrivals 35
2.1.9 Untapped Tourism Potentials in Nigeria 36
2.2 Theoretical Background 38
2.2.1 Model of Ritual Inversion - Graburn, (1983) 38
2.2.2 The Personal and Interpersonal Model - Mannelli, Iso-Ahola, (1987) 39
2.2.3 The Physical, Status and Prestige, Cultural and Impersonal Motivation Model – McIntosh, Goeldner, (1990) 39
2.2.4 The Inner-Directed and Outer-Directed Model - Gnoth, (1997) 40
2.3 Empirical Review 41
2.4 Summary of and Gap in Literature Review 43
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 45
3.1 Research Design 45
3.2 Area of the Study 45
3.3 Population of the Study 45
3.4 Determination of Sample Size 46
3.5 Sampling Technique 46
3.6 Sources of Data Collection 46
3.7 Validity of the Instrument 47
3.8 Reliability of the Instrument 47
3.9Method of Data Analysis 47
3.10 Model specification 47
CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA 50
4.1.1 Questionnaire Administration and Retrieval 50
4.1.2. Age of Tourists 50
4.1.3. Tourists’ Gender 51
4.1.4. Marital Status of Tourists 51
4.1.5. Educational Background of Tourists 52
4.1.6. Where did you visit the resort from? 52
4.1.7. Frequency of resort patronage 53
4.1.8. How satisfied are you with the level of services in the resort? 53
4.1.9. Reasons for Tourists patronage in the resort 54
4.2 Analyses of Data 59
4.2.1 Effect of tourism destination architecture on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State, Nigeria 59
4.2.2 Effect of infrastructure quality on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State, Nigeria 60
4.2.3 Effect of tourism destination landscape on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria 61
4.2.4 Effect of tourism destination events on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria 62
4.3 Discussion of Findings 63
CHAPTER 5
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 66
5.1 Summary of Findings 66
5.2 Conclusion 66
5.3 Recommendations 67
5.4. Limitations and suggestion for Further Studies 68
REFERENCES 70
APPENDIX
LIST OF TABLES
4.1 Distribution and return of questionnaire 50
4.2. Frequency distribution showing the Age brackets of the Tourists 50
4.3. Frequency distribution showing the gender of the studied Tourists 51
4.4. Frequency distribution showing the Marital Status of the studied Tourists 51
4.5. Frequency distribution showing the educational background of the studied Tourists 52
4.6. Frequency distribution showing where the Tourists visited the resort from 52
4.7. Frequency distribution showing the frequency of patronage by the studied Tourists 53
4.8. Frequency distribution showing responses on the Tourists level of satisfaction with the level of services in the resort 53
4.9. Frequency distribution showing responses on the main reasons for Tourists patronage in the resort 54
4.10. Frequency distribution showing responses on tourism architecture in Tinapa resort 54
4.11. Frequency distribution showing responses on the quality of infrastructure in Tinapa resort 55
4.12. Frequency distribution showing responses on the landscape in Tinapa resort 56
4.13. Frequency distribution showing responses on events in Tinapa resort 57
4.14. Frequency distribution showing responses on tourism patronage of Tinapa resort 58
4.15 Simple regression analysis showing the effect of tourism destination architecture on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State, Nigeria 59
4.16 Simple regression analysis showing the effect of infrastructure quality on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State, Nigeria 60
4.17 Simple regression analysis showing the effect of tourism destination landscape on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria 61
4.18 Simple regression analysis showing the effect of tourism destination events on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria 62
LIST OF FIGURE
Fig 1: Conceptual framework showing the linkage between tourism destinations Characteristics and tourists’ patronage 37
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In today's competitive tourism business environment, understanding guests’ expectations, perceptions and demands along with the level of service that the tourism provides can have a significant impact on the sustained success of the tourism industry. These qualities or standards allow industry leaders to distinguish themselves from their competitors, and not only satisfy their guests, but also delight/surprise them through the level of service provided by meeting or exceeding their expectations.
The tourism Industry, a service provider, plays an immense role in the development of Nigeria. Apart from its contribution to GDP, it also serves as a source of employment for many people such as cleaners, cooks, receptionists, security guards, etc. Lovelock and Wirtz (2010) reported that most new employment is provided by the service industry and this serves as the strongest growth area for marketing.
Tourism management in Nigeria is categorized under the Service sector. The sector plays significant roles in many economies, including those of the developing world such as Nigeria, where there is increased importance and recognition for the Service sector. The tourism industry is one of the world’s major industries (Jobyet al., 2006).It comprises of diverse activities, which include the hotel industry. The growth of the Service industries has created a demand for research into their operations and marketing.
Furthermore, the increasing level of business and international agencies activities across the country Nigeria comes along with a huge influx of people requiring some form of service to be provided by the tourism industry. This brings about the issues of what factors customers consider and expect before they can patronize any tourist center. Most tourist centers are faced with the challenge of meeting and exceeding the customer expectations to ensure repeat patronage, which is the bedrock of any business (Caruana et al.,2000).
Patronage comes about as a result of satisfaction of the customers to the quality of services they receive in the tourism destinations they patronize, which further creates loyalty. A loyal customer does not only engage in repeat patronage but also provides positive word- of- mouth to other people, thereby increasing the revenue of the tourist center. The implication of this is that a customer’s change of patronage would have an impact in the long term revenue of the tourist center. However, patronage is not a constant phenomenon, but it is indeed progressive in nature (that is time specific) and the ever-growing volume and pace of competition and the continuous increase in customers’ expectations, services and products that are deemed satisfactory by the customer today will undoubtedly prove unsatisfactory to the same customer in future (Kandampully, 1997).
We live in a world in which demand on business are so much greater than ever before as a result of the continuous increase in customers’ expectations. In response, tourism centers have to be more creative than ever before. Market competition now demands that tourism centers continuously seek means to gain customer patronage. It has been suggested that patronage in today’s competitive environment, characterized by rising customer attraction costs and retention, is the marketplace currency of today’s contemporary business. Patronage is an elusive concept (Wetsch, 2005), and while most marketing research on patronage has focused on frequently purchased packaged goods (brand loyalty), the patronage concept is also important for services like tourism (service patronage) (Dick and Basu, 1994).Despite the perceived proliferation of Tourist centers in the Nigeria environment, customers are now beginning to be choosy in their patronage of these Tourist centers (Mustapha et al., 2014). Accordingly, Arnoldet al. (1983) asserted that location, price, assortment, friendly and courteous service, and pleasant shopping environment were critical determinants of patronage. Most of the researches concerning selection of a Tourist center are based on identification of determinant attributes (Bojanic, 2007).
It is against this backdrop that the researcher was motivated to engage on a study like this to ascertain the determinants of tourism patronage in Tinapa Resort, Cross River State of Nigeria
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This study was informed by the perceived growing trend of patronage of tourist centers by individuals, households and friends in Nigeria. There are certain problems that bedevil the marketing of tourism in Nigeria thereby hampering customer patronage. These problems include; political instability that bring policies that affect the development of the tourism sector, corruption among public office holders who consistently embezzle and divert funds meant for tourism development, armed muggings, kidnappings and carjacking, bomb blast in recent times which makes it difficult for people to patronize tourism destinations in Nigeria
Poor infrastructure is another serious barrier to patronage of tourist destinations in Nigeria. Lonel (2013) proposed certain essential elements of successful tourism infrastructure which are; accommodation and catering structures to house tourists; elements like landscape, culture and history, which increase the attractiveness of a location; communications infrastructure which includes transport and telecommunications; civic elements like hospitality, civic education and aesthetics; and recreational and leisure facilities such as sports complexes, art fairs etc. Unfortunately, these elements are lacking in most tourism destinations in Nigeria, including the Tinapa business resort in Cross River State. Tourists struggle to travel between different regions. For example, South-eastern roads leading to Cross River State is almost completely cut off as a result of the deplorable state of the roads (Aniahet al., 2009).As a result, there is always the problem of poor satisfaction from tourists who visit these tourist centers.
There is also the problem of security. The security concerns of the Niger-Delta region of the country serve as impediments to tourism in Cross River State. Threat of conflicts and wars, growing levels of crime and terrorism, kidnapping and many others often discourage travelers. Consequently, these challenges and more have consistently and continuously limited tourism patronage in Tinapa Resort and other tourism destinations in Nigeria. These challenges must be circumvented if customer patronage of the Nigerian tourism destinations must be enhanced and sustained (Ajake and Amalu, 2012).
Additionally, there is fragmented research on tourism destination characteristics. In Nigeria, there is dearth of literature on tourism destination characteristics on tourists’ patronage(Nadube and Akahome, 2017; Odia and Agbonifoh, 2017; Bitrus, 2014;Joseph, 2013). Hence, the desire to investigate the influence of tourism destination characteristics on tourists’ patronage in Tinapa Resort, Cross River State Nigeria.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of the study was to ascertain the influence of tourism destination characteristics on tourists’ patronage in Tinapa Resort, Cross River State of Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives were to;
i. ascertain the effect of tourism destination architecture on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria;
ii. identify the effect of infrastructure quality on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria;
iii. determine the effect of tourism destination landscape on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria;
iv. examine the effect of tourism destination events on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort Cross River State Nigeria.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The study attempted to provide answers to the following questions;
i. What is the effect of tourism destination architecture on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort?
ii. What is the effect of infrastructure quality on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort?
iii. What is the effect of tourism destination landscape on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort?
iv. What is the effect of tourism destination events on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort?
1.5 STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES
The following null hypotheses were postulated to guide the study
HO1: There is no significant effect of tourism destination architecture on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort
HO2: There is no effectof infrastructure quality on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort
HO3: There is no significant effect of tourism destination landscape on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort
HO4: There is no significant effect of tourism destination events on tourists’ patronage of Tinapa resort.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The importance of delivering superior service quality by Tourist centers is becoming increasingly important as competition intensifies throughout the Tourism industry in Nigeria. This necessitates the need for value addition among tourist firms in order to increase customers’ patronage. This study is of benefit to a good number of people and companies.
This study will be of value to managers of Tourism centers and other service firm managers across Nigeria. They will gain additional knowledge in relation to the issues that need to be addressed in order to attract, satisfy and retain customers and cultivate them into becoming loyal customers. This study will further enable them overcome the competition posed by other Tourism centers.
Tourism will also benefit from this study as they will be adequately informed on what strategies to be adopted to change customers’ perceptions and experience towards their service offerings which will further serve as a good strategy towards achieving good customer patronage, satisfaction, loyalty and retention. This will undoubtedly lead to increase in market share, increased profit margins, improved customer service and efficiency. The findings will, therefore, be of great importance in strategic planning on customer patronage and retention.
The benefits of the study, to the customers are that they can get better service and thus become more loyal to the company. This study will yield better understanding of service dimensions that lead to customers’ patronage and the nature of customer value sought for.
Academicians and researchers, will also benefit because the final report of this study on the factors that determine customers’ tourism patronage will act as future reference materials, scholars and future researchers in this area will use this study as a reference in their studies.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of the study covered the content scope, geographic scope, unit scope and time scope.
Content Scope: The study was domiciled in service marketing with emphasis on influence of tourism destination characteristics on tourists’ patronage in Tinapa Resort, Cross River State Nigeria. The study variables for tourism destination characteristics were; tourism destination architecture, tourism infrastructure, tourism destination landscape and tourism destination events, while customer patronage stood as the dependent variable. The study showed how tourism destination characteristics affected tourists’ patronage.
Geographic Scope: Geographically, the study was limited to Tinapa Resort in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria in regards to data collection, analysis and recommendations. This study was basically within the confines of Adiabo village in Odukpani Local Government area of Cross River State, Nigeria. The Tinapa business resort (site) is bounded to the North by the settlement of Adiabo, to the south by the Pamol industrial estate and Pamol Rubber Plantation. While to the East and West by, farmlands and Calabar River respectively.
Unit of analysis: The tourists in Tinapa business resort represented the unit of analysis of the study.
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