International Journal of Management Sciences
Vol. 6, No. 11, 2016, 508-514
Prospect and Problems of Sustainable Tourism in Nigeria
Chris A. Otu1
Abstract
The main thrust of this study was to investigate the prospect and problems of sustainable tourism in Nigeria.
The lone hypothesis for this study investigated the relationship between sustainable tourism development and
economic growth in Nigeria. The research design adopted for this study is ex-post facto research design.
Data for the study was mainly secondary data collected from the World Tourism Organization and Central
Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin. An econometric model linking growth of Nigeria economy as the
dependent variable and tourism receipt, tourism arrival and inflation rate on one side as the independent
variable was formulated. Data collected were analyzed using error correction model. Result of the findings
revealed that: there exist a significant relationship between tourism receipt and economic growth in Nigeria
and tourism arrival rate has a significant impact on the growth of Nigerian economy. The study also revealed
that inflation significantly exerts an influence on the growth of Nigerian economy. The study recommended
that tourism should be well planned, developed and managed to avoid congestion and pollution and
environmental malpractices as well as socioeconomic and cultural problems.
Keywords: Tourism receipt, tourism arrival, inflation, economic growth
1. Introduction
Tourism comprises of activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual
permanent places of residence for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other
purposes. Based on this, the tourism industry includes all socio-economic activities that are directly or
indirectly involved in providing services to tourist. The concept of leisure has assumed increasing
importance in the lives of many in western and developing societies during the last century. Expanding
horizons resulting from increased leisure time, wealth and technological advances like the railway allowed
more people to travel further afield in search of pleasurable experiences as the nineteenth century progressed.
Nineteenth century travelers became twentieth century tourists, following prescribed programs to see new
place for their interest, scenery or the like.
Nigeria is richly endowed with a large population with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, expanse
of vegetation with different variety of flora and fauna stretching from the mangrove swamps and equatorial
rainforest zones in the south to the semi desert in the North. This is transverse by rivers of various sizes and
interspaced with hills, mountain ranges and waterfalls, with these natural features and scenic beauty coupled
with two distinct climatic seasons, Nigeria is arguably created to be a tourist delight on the Africa continent.
Organized tourism in Nigeria has however remained low in spite of these.
Tourism was accorded priority status in Nigeria in 1990 with the launching of the National Tourism
Policy which was to generate foreign exchange earnings, create employment opportunities, and promote rural
enterprise and national integration. Various types of tourism are on offer in Nigeria, from conference tourism
to festival tourism, agriculture and cultural tourism. An investigation will be made into what constitutes
sustainable Tourism in Nigeria as well as its prospects and problems
1
Department of Economics Faculty of Social Sciences University of Calabar Calabar –Nigeria
© 2016 Research Academy of Social Sciences
http://www.rassweb.com
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International Journal of Management Sciences
Statement of Problem
Tourism has often been looked upon as an industry associated with the west and patronized by idle
people with time and money and no better way to spend it. Tourism has however become an impetus to
sustained growth and development in many countries of the world, and no longer as just a generator of
foreign exchange.
The world Tourism Organization (WTO) reports that tourism accounts for 40 percent of global trade in
services, making it one of the largest categories of international trade (UNWTO, 2006; Ferguson, 2007). In
2005 alone, 3 to 10 percent of the GDP of development countries was derived from the tourism industry
(WTO, 2005). As a result, it is not farfetched to imagine that tourism can be a viable export oriented
economic growth strategy for creating jobs and accelerating development to lift people up from abject
poverty.
However, despite the popularity and increasing importance of tourism among continents of the world
and particularly Africa, it has attracted relatively low attention in the economic development literature and
little empirical study has been done on tourism’s relationship with economic growth in the Nigerian context
2. Literature Review
Sustainable Tourism as a Development Tool
As international tourism began to grow, it became apparent that a range of negative impacts were
inevitable. As a result, sustainable development became a focus for tourism as a development tool,
international tourism, with its emphasis on the exploitation of ‘free’ resources (sun, see, sand and friendly
people), became an attractive option for economic development for less developed countries (LDCs) .
Tourism, unlike other development option such as manufacturing mining, forestry etc., was widely
perceived to be a clean and renewable industry. Because it drew upon ‘free’ natural, historical, socio and
cultural resources it was thought to be less capital intensive in ts requirements for development. For LDCs
with limited exploitable natural resources basis in particular, tourism was a viable development option
offering an important opportunity for economic diversification (WTO & IHRA, 1999). By the early 1970’s it
became apparent that the ‘smokeless industry’ of tourism was not as being as first thought.
As early as 1973, the potential negative impacts of tourism were being considered (Young, 1973). These
early critiques of tourism as a development tool focused primarily on the negative socio-cultural impacts (De
Kadt, 1979), but as international tourism continued to grow exponentially, it became apparent that negative
impacts were affected on the environment and economies of LDCs as well. The initial response to these
negativee impacts involved a series of initiatives undertaken by public sector bodies to manage tourism
visitor management techniques. These initiatives were designed to ameliorate the worst of the impacts in the
short – term. Overall, these were small – scale, localized initiatives that did not attempt to change the nature
of tourism as a whole (Swarbrooke, 1999). They were however, the precursors of consideration of
sustainable tourism development.
Principles of Sustainable Tourism
Sustainability as a concept involves a number of different strands. Environmental ecological and
economic factors assume that it is applicable in the technical science whereas social and political factors
relate to power and values. Within these strands, questions of scale, family, community, region and
timescale; project life, indefinite and so on, are critical elements. Ecological sustainability can be achieved
by excluding or restricting people from particularly vulnerable areas, such as a designated wilderness. In
development or social terms, however, such an approach would be catastrophic. A less extreme possibility
would be to permit a small group of people to benefit, while still achieving a relatively high degree of
ecological sustainability.
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C. A. Otu
A different view of sustainability with a political and economic stance can set notions like equity and
the reduction of poverty alongside ecological maintenance. This balance is difficult to achieve because it
contains contradictions. The challenges is to compromise between ecological sustainability and sustainable
lifestyles for the majority of the population, including underprivileged groups such as the poor, the elderly,
women and ethnic and religious minorities. Tourism, conservation and benefits and cost to local people
create immense planning and management difficulties especially in national parks where pastoralists can
clash with those who run the same parts mainly for tourism. The only realistic approach is to agree priorities.
If conservation of the physical environment is of paramount concern, then the needs of people – tourism and
local inhabitants at the destination are relatively unimportant. Conversely the principal focus could be the
improvement of the circumstance of the disadvantaged and powerless, who are likely to lose through the
actions of market forces.
Ecotourism – evolution and issues in sustainability
As a result of these global policies set forth in the 1987 World Commission on Environment and
Development to the United Nations General Assembly’s report ‘’Our Common Future’’ (otherwise known as
the brundtland Report), and the subsequent United Nations Conference on Environment (popularly known as
‘’The Earth Summit’’) in 1992, sustainability emerged as a key issue in development. The adoption of
Agenda 21 at The Earth Summit further elaborated and expressed the sustainabie development approach. In
the late 1980s and early 1990s, tourism academics and practitioners also began to consider the implications
of sustainable development for their own industry.
Despite the attention given to it, sustainable tourism development has proved to be difficult to define
and operationaliz. As Harrison (1996;p.72) stated, ‘’by combinig development (inevitably a value laden
concept) with sustainability (Which is allegedly non – operational and reformist) we thus arrive at the doubly
vague concept of sustainable development, only then to focus on one aspect of this dubious process – that of
sustainable tourism’’.
The world Tourism Organization defines sustainable tourism as tourism development that ‘’meets the
needs of present tourist and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future…
leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social, and aesthetic needs can be
fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity, and life
support systems’’ (WTO, 2002:2).
Sustainable tourism as defined by Travis and Ceballos - Lascurain is tourism that is developed and
managed in such a way that all tourism activity which in some way focuses on a heritage resource (be it
natural or cultural), can continue indefinitely. In other words it does not detract from efforts to maintain that
resources in perpetuity (FNNPE, 1992).
De Kadt also uses ‘’sustainable tourism” as the broadest descriptor employed to denote all types of
tourism, whether based on natural or human made resources that contribute to sustainable development,
Kutay (1999) remarked that ecotourism can be seen as a model of development in which natural areas are
planned as part of the tourism economic base, and biological resources and ecological processes clearly
linked to social and economic sectors.
‘’Ecotourism’’ is used to describe tourism only when an additional normative characterization is
intended – tourism that helps society to achieve sustainable development. For many destinations, visitor
expenditure on accommodation, food and drink, local transport, entertainment, shopping, etc. is an important
pillar of their economies, creating much needed employment and opportunities for development.
WTO (2002) asserts that tourism development projects if successful would attract international
investment, contribute to a nation’s foreign exchange earnings and create economic development. By the
trickle down process local communities will benefit through employment and local economic development,
thereby facilitating the generation of more spending power by poor people in a community.
UNWTO estimates that worldwide receipts from international tourism reached US$ 733 billion (584
billion Euros) in 2006. In absolute terms, international tourism receipts increase by US$ 57 billion (40 billion
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Euros) in 2006 – an amount well above the receipts of the world’s second biggest tourism earner, Spain, or
the combined receipts of the Middle East and Africa.
The international tourist arrivals (total international tourist trips made, not the number of different
tourist travelling) witnessed a growth from 565 million in 1995 to 636.6 million in 1998, and the WTO is
practicing a growth of up to 101.56 billion by 2020. Tourism receipts (total expenditure of international
tourists) will reach $2 trillion by 2020. By then, one of every tour arrival will be long-haul, i.e. tourist
travelling among different world regions (UNWTO, 2008).
Chokor (1993) has stated that a major weakness in Nigeria’s preparation for tourism is that the tourism
culture is still very much foreign to the people. Tourism as seen by him is an exclusive preserve of the rich
and affluent who can afford both the time and cost needed for trips. Moreover there has been much emphasis
on international tourism, characterized by the development of game reserves, the construction of
international hotels and city based recreational facilities. This is responsible for the weak impact tourism has
had on national and regional development on the country.
Areola (1988) also noted that the countries that have benefited most from tourism are those that
developed their own internal, home baed tourism prior to or simultaneously with the development of
international tourism. Thus it is the extent to which recreational activities are based on local resources and
the environment that enables backward linkages with local development efforts.
3. Methodology
The research design adopted for this study is ex-post facto research design. According to Ayara (2005)
Ex-post facto research design is the design that permit the researcher to undertake a research in a situation
where he has no control over the independent and dependent variables of the study. At the time of the study
their manifestation has already occurred. A need to have a better understanding of this study leads to the
consultation of a number of related materials. Most of the required data of this work were obtained from
published articles, journals; bulletin especially those from federal office of statistics, articles and news papers
publications.
The technique adopted in obtaining information for this study relied heavily on intensive library
research. Secondary information such as published journals, texts, paper presentations, reading, newspapers,
annual reports and internet materials.Data collection requires the researcher to travel outside Calabar
especially to Abuja, Lagos and Ibadan. These data needed in our study are annual estimate of most estimates
of most readily available data. We should note here that lot of information are lost in rounding up most data.
Therefore, most of the variables to be used in our equations are not sensitive to seasonal changes which
annual data might not capture. These data therefore, should not be interpreted as being perfect.
Model Specification
To carry out this study, two equations were formulated to link the Dependent and independent variables
in the study. The equations were thus presented as follows:
PCI = f (INFLA, TOR, TAR, DU---------------- 1
Where
PCI = Growth rate of real per capita GDP
INFLA= INFLA RATE
TOR = International tourism receipt
TAR = Tourist arrival
DU= Political stability
Mathematically, the equation will be transformed into
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C. A. Otu
PCI = a0 + a1INFLA + a2 TOR, + a3 TAR + a4 DU + U1…..……… (2)
a prior, a > 0, a4 >0,
4. Data Analysis
Unit Root Test
The Augumented Dicky fular
Variable
LPCI
INFLA
LTOR
LTAR
DU
Results of ADF and PP unit root test
ADF
Decision
Philip Perron
-3.3416**
1(1)
-5.2381*
-3.5249**
1(0)
-3.2354**
4.4643*
1(0)
6.9186*
-6.3913*
1(1)
-2.7148***
-5.0877*
1(1)
-5.5769*
Decision
1(1)
1(0)
1(0)
1(0)
1(1)
Source: Researcher’s computation.
Note: (i) D represents the first difference operator (ii) critical values, ADF test: 1 percent = -3.6067, 5
percent = -2.9378 and 10 percent = -2.6069. Philips-Peron: 1 percent = -3.6019, 5 percent = -2.9358 and 10
percent = -2.6059. *significant at 1 percent; **significant at 5 percent; ***significant at 10 percent
The ADF and PP tests gave conflicting results for the order of integration for tourism arrival (LTAR).
While the ADF test indicates that it is 1(1) variable, the PP test affirms it to be 1(0) variable. For the purpose
of this study however, we treat it as 1(0) variable, in line with the Philip Peron test conclusion
Table 2: Results of parsimonious error correction estimation for impact of tourism development (TOR,
TAR, INFLA and DU) on Nigerian economic growth.
Dependent Variable: D(PCI)
Method: Least Squares
Date: 02/09/15 Time: 01:51
Sample(adjusted): 1999 2009
Included observations: 11 after adjusting endpoints
Variable
Coefficient
Std. Error
t-Statistic
Prob.
TOR(-1))
TAR(-1))
DU
INFLA
ECM(-1)
C
13.25247
6.136266
0.128900
0.040017
-0.510006
-19.15805
6.587426
2.414663
0.069643
0.034035
0.061339
8.208116
2.011782
2.541252
1.850862
1.175748
-8.314570
-2.334037
0.0329
0.0063
0.0737
0.2486
0.0000
0.0263
R-squared
Adjusted R-squared
S.E. of regression
Sum squared resid
Log likelihood
Durbin-Watson stat
0.907860
0.887055
2.847637
251.3801
-91.67499
1.396900
Mean dependent var
S.D. dependent var
Akaike info criterion
Schwarz criterion
F-statistic
Prob(F-statistic)
0.566673
8.473264
5.111538
5.452781
43.63519
0.000000
Source: Researcher’s Computation
Table 2 showed that adjusted R2 value obtained from the model estimation is 0.887055. The figure
indicates that about 89 percent of the variation from the dependent variable economic development (PCI)
was explained by the explanatory variables in the model. The estimated result in table shows F-statistic
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figure of 43.63519 and Durbin Watson statistic value of 1.396900. The F-statistic figure indicates that the
overall regression is significant at 1 percent significance level, while the Durbin Watson statistic figure of
1.396900 indicates absence of serial correlations in the model. The results in table 2 show that coefficient of
lag tourism receipt is (TOR) is 13.25, while the corresponding t-statistic figure is 2.01. The figures implied
that TOR impact positively and significantly on economic growth in Nigeria in one lagged period. The
coefficient and t-statistic values of lag tourism arrival TAR(-1) are 13.25247 and 2.011782 respectively,
implying that, tourism arrival (TAR)impacts positively and significantly on economic development in
Nigeria at 5 percent significance level. This result suggests that improvement in tourism receipt and tourism
arrival is essential and required for economic growth in Nigeria
5. Summary and Recommendation
Summary
The main thrust of this study was to investigate the prospect and problems of sustainable tourism in
Nigeria. The lone hypothesis for this study investigated the relationship between sustainable tourism
development and economic growth in Nigeria. The research design adopted for this study is ex-post facto
research design. Data for the study was mainly secondary data collected from the World Tourism
Organization and Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin. Data collected was analyzed using error
correction model. Result of the findings revealed that:
1. There exists a significant relationship between tourism receipt and economic growth in Nigeria
2. Tourism arrival rate has a significant impact on the growth of Nigerian economy
3. Inflation significantly exert an influence on the growth of Nigerian economy
Recommendations
1. Tourism ought to be well planned developed and managed or else it results in ;congestions,
pollution and other environmental as well as socioeconomic and cultural problems
2. Government policy should facilitate visa issuance for ease of travel in to Nigeria as well as address
so of the fundamental barriers of tourism growth by looking at how to expand and modernize infrastructure
to apply tax fairly and to invest in human resource development
References
Areola, O. (1988). The political reality of conservation in Nigeria. In D Anderson and R. Grove (Eds).
Conservation in Africa: people, politics and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Chokor, B. A. (1993). Environment and tourism in Nigeria. Lagos: Environment and Behaviour Association
of Nigeria
Harrison, D (1996). Sustainable tourism in Island and small states: Theoretical issues London: Mansell
Kutay, K (1999). The new ethic in adventure travel. Buzzworm,1 (4), 15-28
Swarbrooke, J (1999). Sustainable tourism management. Wallingford: CABI
United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), (2008). Tourism highlights. Retrieved February10,
2010 from www.hotelnewsresources.com/pdf8//unwto
United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) (200`6). Nigeria tourism master plan, final report.
Retrieved September 13, 2013 from http//www.unwto.org
World Tourism Organization (WTO) (2005).Yearbook of tourism statistics. Madrid: World Tourism
Organization
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C. A. Otu
World Tourism Organization and International Hotel and Restaurant Association (WTO & IHRA) (1999).
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Department of Economic and Social Affairs:
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www.wto.org.79w//#pdf
Young, G (1973). Tourism: Blessing or blight? Harmondsworth: Penguin
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