CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Tourism is currently the fastest growing sector of global economy. It is already the number one industry in many countries, in terms of foreign exchange earnings and job creation (Agene 2005). Tourism is at present the major export product for 83 percent of developing countries and main export of one third of them. In 2000 specifically, developing countries recorded 292.6 million international arrivals (WTO 2003). Ukene (2003) quoting IMF report of the year 2000 asserted that tourism generated U$504 billion in the year globally. In tourism marketing, the tourist is identified as a place customer. The role of marketing in place or tourism marketing is to create satisfied customers and keep them at a profit (Drucker, 1965).
Tourism development has undergone gradual but progressive evolution with each phase reflecting its growing importance in the economy. Organized tourism started in Nigeria in 1962. The Nigerian Tourism Association was formed by group of private practitioners to project the tourist image in Nigeria (Okon, 1997). The efforts of the association led to the admission of Nigeria as full member of the International Union of Official Organization Travel (IUOTO), now World Tourism Organization (WTO) in 1964. The Federal Government of Nigeria in 1990 issued a blue print on Tourism to demonstrate the development of tourism into an economically viable industry. The main thrust of the National Tourism Policy is devoted to the objectives of generating foreign exchange and employment etc. (Osuaka, 2001). Driven by the desire to realize these objectives, the Nigerian Government has remained committed to the growth and development of tourism in the country. This stance has been successively reflected in various monetary, fiscal and industrial policy measures employed to provide appropriate financing and incentives for the sector.
Prior to 1980, the type, known and practiced tourism was the standard commercial (mass) tourism which was based on commercially created beehive of activities such as festivals, carnivals and other seasonal events. But since the 1980s tourism trend has shifted focus to natural ecosystem and, this marked the emergence of tourism which has been considered a critical endeavor by environmentalists, so that future generations may experience destinations relatively untouched by human intervention (Honey, 2008). Coined by Hector Ceballos-Lascurain in 1983, the concept of tourism or responsible tourism or jungle tourism, and sustainable tourism (Sadry, 2009) have become prevalent concepts since the mid-1980s, and has experienced arguably the fastest growth of all sub-sectors in the tourism industry. Virtually, almost all the Local Government Areas in Nigeria have varying degrees of ecotourism attractions. This attests to the richness of the Nigerian natural and cultural attractions as described by Fagbile (2001). The economic importance of tourism is quite enormous. It educates the travellers, provides funds for ecological conservation, creates jobs, protect and conserves the environment, improves the well-being of local people, ensures direct financial support to local people, creates political empowerment of local communities, generates revenue for government, maintains peace, law and order in society, fostering respect for different cultures and for human rights and contribute to economic development.
However, tourism development suffered setbacks in the past because of lack of commitment by previous governments and this has attracted many scholarly enquiries on the factors that may determined the tourism service marketing responsiveness in Nigeria, considering its strategic importance to the economic development of any nation.
1.2 Statement of the problem
In recognition of the importance of tourism in national development, governments have demonstrated concerted efforts towards developing the sector by funding and maintaining the sector, but the result of such effort has not been ascertained by any known literature in the region.
At the moment, available literature such as Blackwell (1970), Ashworth and Voogd (1993), and Esu (2006), etc., focused on the challenges to tourism marketing while literature on the problems of tourism service marketing responsiveness in the region are scarce. In other words, past literatures on tourism marketing focused more on how to market tourism product and less, perhaps not at all on why tourists have not been visiting tourism sites in south-south zone of Nigeria inspite of the richness and attractiveness of most sites coupled with the efforts of government and firms in the hospitality industry at promoting these sites. Moreover, factors such as demographic characteristics, socioeconomic characteristics of tourists, destination characteristics, government policy, environmental factors and marketing communication characteristics may have been conjecturally identified as problems of tourism marketing responsiveness in the region. But it is quite unfortunate that such intuitive based determinants lacked empirical justification, thereby creating illusion as to which of the identified factors significantly influence tourism marketing responsiveness in the region. The above conjectured dimensions of impediment notwithstanding, there is still no sufficient empirical proof of which variable in each dimension most influenced tourism service marketing responsiveness. For instance, amongst demographic characteristics of age, gender, lifestyle, religious belief, attitude, cultural inclination, residency most influences tourism marketing responsiveness? Also, which of the socioeconomic factor such as income, education, employment status, occupation, perceived usefulness and fees/charges most influence tourism marketing responsiveness? Amongst destination characteristics, which of service quality, functionality of tangibles, convenience and comfort, service delivery most influence ecotourism marketing responsiveness? Assuming it is marketing communication strategy, which of advertising, social media, internet, air catalogue etc? If it is government policy, could it be immigration requirements, stay-time permit, and bilateral agreement? Should it be environmental factors, could it be topography, accessibility, security and safety, climatic condition, attitude of the host community etc that is most responsible for low tourism service marketing responsiveness in the region?
Perhaps, the answer to these questions may be in the affirmative, but what becomes more worrisome afterall, is the uncertainty of the extent to which each of the identified variables have affected tourism service marketing responsiveness in the region. These and other salient issues prompted the researcher to consider an empirical investigation of the factors that significantly affect tourism service marketing responsiveness in the south-south geopolitical zone of Nigeria a worthwhile academic exercise, hence this study.
1.3 Objectives of the study
The main objective of this study will be to investigate factors that influence tourism marketing responsiveness in South-South zone of Nigeria. Specific objectives will be to:
Ascertain the relationship between demographic characteristics of tourists and tourism service marketing responsiveness in the South-South zone of Nigeria.
Ascertain the relationship between socioeconomic characteristics of tourists and tourism service marketing responsiveness in the South-South zone of Nigeria.
Investigate the relationship between destination characteristics and tourism service marketing responsiveness in the South-South zone of Nigeria.
Find out the relationship between government policy and tourism service marketing responsiveness in the South-South zone of Nigeria.
Examine the relationship between environmental factors and tourism service marketing responsiveness in the South-South zone of Nigeria
Examine the relationship between marketing communication factors and tourism service marketing responsiveness in the South-South zone of Nigeria