ASSESSMENT OF THE LEVEL OF UTILIZATION OF RECREATIONAL POTENTIALS OF OLD OYO AND OKOMU NATIONAL PARKS, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the level of utilization of recreational potentials of Old Oyo and Okomu National Parks, Nigeria. The sample size for the staff and tourists was 352 comprising 218 tourists and 134 staff. Data were obtained using direct field observations, in-depth interview, focus group discussions and questionnaires. Data were analyzed and presented descriptively while the hypothesis were tested using Independent t-test, one way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression. Findings showed that tourism and recreational features are a mix of natural, historical, cultural and manmade features. Also, Old Oyo National Park has a holding capacity of 96. At Okomu National Park, the holding capacity has a value of 91. Visitors influx to both national parks revealed that a total number of 18,515 visitors have visited Old Oyo National Park from 1997 to 2017 while a total number of 10,394 visitors have visited Okomu National Park from 2003 to 2017. The tourists were aware of recreational potentials of both parks and their level of awareness revealed they were moderately aware. The study further revealed that the highest mean on tourists’ perception of Old Oyo National Park was 3.84 for ‘No Ambulance”. Also identified at Okomu, lack of network service had the highest mean value of 4.07. Also revealed on the tourist satisfaction with the destination facilities indicating that tourists were most satisfied with bar in Oyo and least satisfied with volleyball court. Insecurity, in the country as well as other factors such as bad access road, lack of functional gymnasium equipment were identified as major factors affecting visitation to destination sites. Hypotheses tested revealed that there is no significant difference in the extent of utilization of recreational potentials between the Parks (P>0.05). Also, there is a significant relationship between Membership of NGOs, Frequency of visits, days spent at the sites and the tourists’ utilization of park potentials (P<0.05). Furthermore, tourists’ perception and perceived service quality are significantly different between the parks (P<0.05). It was also concluded that many recreation activities such as park viewing, visit to the ruins at Oyo-ile, in door game/swimming pool, visit to the tree house, hanging bridge and sport fishing were among the attractions tourist appreciated while in the park. It was recommended that as the parks cannot sustain themselves financially due to low revenue generation from ecotourism activities, management of both parks should seek grants, donors or public private partnership (PPP) also re-introduction of souvenir, erection of bill boards across the country with sustain awareness creation through radio/television and conservation education programmes for the two Parks.