Abstract
Poor patronage has been a subject of concern in hospitality industry and tourist attraction centres. This has impacted negatively on investment in the sector and overall economic development. The study therefore assessed patronage of tourist centres in Badagry Local Government area (LGA) of Lagos State. Nigeria. The study was based on primary data obtained in a cross-sectional survey of 240 respondents using multi-stage sampling technique in selected tourist centres in the LGA. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results revealed that majority of the respondents were between 26-30 years of age with an average of 36.2 years. Majority (62.1%) of the respondents were females, 71.1 percent were single and 41.7 percent had tertiary education. Furthermore, majority (60.8%) of the respondents had between 4-6 individuals as household members. The most visited tourist centre recreation purpose (62.1%), education purpose (87.1%), research purpose (84.2%), information purpose (72.1%) and sightseeing which accounted for 57.9%. Furthermore, inadequate funding of tourist by the government (95.8%), under developed tourism infrastructure (96.3%), low patronage (98.8%), limited understanding of tourism (95.0%) and bad road to tourism destination (98.3%) accounted for poor patronage. The study concluded that age, sex, marital status, education, major occupation, working experience and household size of the respondents were associated with their level of satisfaction in the study area. The study therefore recommended that tourism development should not be left alone for the state government, the Local government should make effort to support the state government to create enabling environment to the tourist centres. Keywords: tourists, tourist centres, patronage, level of satisfaction, Badagry DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-12-01 Publication date: June 30th 2020
Highlights
Tourism is identified as an effective way to revitalise the economy of any destination (Long, 2012) and widely acknowledged as one of the fastest growing industry globally (Raymond, 2001; Newsome et al, 2002; Basu, 2003, Jennie, 2012)
The sex of the respondents was necessitated for possible inference deduction and generalization on how it relates to tourist centre patronage
The relationship between education and tourist centre patronage formed the basis for examining the educational level of the respondents. the study revealed that the majority (41.7%) of the respondents had tertiary education, about 38.3% of the respondents possessed secondary level formal education while 20.0% had primary school education, implying that level of formal education may enhance tourist centre patronage by the respondents in the study area
Summary
Tourism is identified as an effective way to revitalise the economy of any destination (Long, 2012) and widely acknowledged as one of the fastest growing industry globally (Raymond, 2001; Newsome et al, 2002; Basu, 2003, Jennie, 2012). Nigeria’s tourism landscape is extremely rich and beautiful for global tourist attraction; the weather, climate, vegetation, quality airspace, sunshine, beautiful scenery, the rock, falls, captivating beaches, historical relics, rich cultural diversity, friendly peoples and wildlife are Nigeria’s tourism assets source. This makes Nigeria a leading tourism paradise in Africa (WTO, 2016). The market share of emerging economies was not left out in this boom, increasing from 30% in 1980 to 47% in 2015, and is expected to reach 57% by 2030, equivalent to over 1billion international tourist arrivals (UN,WTO’s Long Term Forecast Tourism Towards 2030)
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