Stakeholders' Perception of Socioeconomic Implications of Crises on Tourism in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Although it seems obvious that tourism activities at destinations would be adversely impacted by crises including terror attacks, crime, and political unrest, with consequential socioeconomic implications, not all generic empirical investigations support these views. This study examines the extent to which various crises affected tourism at two tourist sites, namely the Ilaji Hotels and Sports Resort and Bower’s Tower in Oyo State, Nigeria. Like many of Nigeria’s destinations, there have been crisis incidents at these sites that could have socioeconomic implications. The current study employs crisis management and the push and pull factor theories. It uses a mixed-method approach to unravel the crisis perceptions of 8 destination stakeholders and 230 tourists from the study sites. Interview/document coding and statistical tools (frequencies and percentages) were used to analyze and determine how various crises including kidnapping, political demonstrations, ethnic conflict, and snatch theft impacted tourist flow, tourist perceptions, and socioeconomic potentials of the selected destinations. Based on the findings, it was concluded that crises, other than the past COVID-19 pandemic, had no significant impact on tourist flow, tourist perceptions, host community, and employment owing to tourism development measures at the study sites. Nonetheless, the study recognizes the need for further development of tourism at these sites through the provision and maintenance of adequate infrastructure and promotion of the destination for the socioeconomic prosperity of the host communities.