Abstract:
This study investigates the stakeholders’ perception of Old Oyo National Park, Nigeria. Tourism has profound effect on the local community of its destination, as it brings economic and socio-cultural changes. The broad objectives of this study are to assess the condition of existing facilities vis-à-vis the problems confronting and potential of the Park, identify the host and the visitors to the park and assess how people perceive the park. The research methods include in-depth fieldwork, observation, questionnaire administration, interviews, collation and processing of field data. The research instrument was the questionnaire administered with the aid of simple random sampling. Two hundred and fifteen copies of the questionnaire were administered on the residents of the study area, while 109 copies of the second set of questionnaire were administered on the tourists. Interview was conducted with the staff of the Park. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data collected for the study. The result of the study revealed that Old Oyo National Park was an attractive tourist destination. However, it was observed that the level of awareness of the tourist centres to the general public is relatively poor and the Park is fairly developed. The result shows that the community members blamed the lack of development and public awareness of the Park on the government. The research also revealed that the Park has positively influenced the community for developments. Also the Park has created employment opportunities to the residents of the surrounding towns. It was also found the Park had positive impact on the standard of living of the residents. Some of the major problems identified were poor management of the existing facilities, inadequate provision of recreational facilities, and poor conditions of infrastructural facilities in the entire study area such as roads and pipe borne water. The research recommends media awareness and publicity, effective coordination of all agencies for proper maintenance of the facilities, improvement of the transportation facilities and public and private partnership in development of this National Park. If these recommendations can be followed, the Old Oyo National Park will be attractive tourist destinations in years to come. These will assist to boost the socio-economic development of the community.
