SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT OF IKOGOSI WARM SPRING RESORT AND IDANRE HILLS ON THE HOST COMMUNITIES

Abstract

Tourism has become a major source of economic diversification for many countries, underpinning the service sector and forging effective backward and forward linkages with the rest of the economy, allowing new employment and income earning opportunities. Although, the developed countries account for a higher proportion of global tourism, many developing countries are beginning to take advantage of the huge opportunities offered by tourism. However, only developing countries with effective natural and man-made tourism supporting and enhancing infrastructure have been able to develop their tourism sector and seize the attendant advantages. Nigeria is one such country seeking to diversify its economy away from crude oil production to maximize employment and income generating opportunities. Nigeria has huge tourism potentials, especially given its natural and diversified landscapes but lacks effective and tourism supporting and enhancing infrastructure. While tourism affords huge employment and income generating opportunities, its impact on bio-physical environment is well acknowledged. Indeed, most of Nigeria’s natural landscapes are eco-sensitive areas and exploring them as tourist destinations must be sustainably conducted to enhance the carrying-capacity or regenerative capacity of these landscapes. This paper critically analyses the socio-economic impacts of tourism development in Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort and Idanre Hills on the host communities. Two sets of structured questionnaires was used and a total number of 380 copies of questionnaires was administered., copies of about 237 was administered through random sampling to some of the residents of the community members in Odode Idanre and 143copies was administered to some of the residents of the community members in Ikogosi through random sampling. Direct face to face method was used in the administration of structured questionnaire. The result shows that there has been development from the establishment of these tourist sites in the study areas. The Economic impacts discovered from the study site of Idanre Hills are: Increase in income, Increase in demand for local food, Increase in cost of transportation.79.8% of the respondents in idanre said that the tourist sites has increased income and 66.7 % of the respondents in ikogosi said tourist sites has increased income. Idanre has benefitted more of these social developments like internet; improve in mobile networks more than Ikogosi. A factor that has greatly contributed to the better development of Idanre than Ikogosi is the well-organized festival in Idanre which helps to promote the culture of the people and also promoting tourism. Objective one and two result was obtained through structured questionnaire that was administered to the respondents and was descriptively analysed using pie charts, bar charts, column charts, frequency tables and percentages.