Long Run Analysis of Tourism and Economic Growth in Nigeria

Abstract

In this paper, the impact of tourism on economic growth in Nigeria is examined using a dynamic framework and data covering the 1983-2017 period. Tourism impacts are measured in terms of capital investment in the sector and contribution to total export revenues, while growth is considered in terms of growth in GDP per capita, services sector growth and aggregate employment. Using the autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) approach to cointegration analysis, the study finds a unidirectional long run relationship running from tourism to economic growth in Nigeria. Moreover, it is found that the direct effect of tourism on growth is weak, rather a strong channelled impact of tourism sector development on economic growth in Nigeria is established. In the long run, tourism promotes services sector expansion and contributes significantly to overall employment growth in Nigeria.