INVOLVEMENT IN TOURISM ACTIVITIES AND WELLBEING OF RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN SELECTED TOURIST SITES IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Tourism activities (TA) are livelihood options, which affect rural wellbeing. Given the failure of several development interventions to significantly improve the wellbeing of rural households, tourism and agriculture nexus offers an alternative approach to enhance the wellbeing of rural households. To harness the opportunities in tourism, rural households need to be involved in TA. However, there is a dearth of information on the extent of involvement of rural households in TA and how this impacts on their wellbeing. Hence, the effects of involvement in TA on the wellbeing of rural households in selected tourist sites in southwestern Nigeria were investigated. Three tourist sites: Olumirin Waterfalls (Osun state), Ikogosi Warm Spring (Ekiti state) and Idanre Hills (Ondo state) were purposively selected due to their prominence for TA. In each location, two communities (host and proximate) were selected and households in each community were randomly sampled to give 300 households (Olumirin 62, Ikogosi 84, Idanre 154). Interview schedule was used to collect data on respondents’ socio-economic characteristics, attitude towards TA, involvement in TA, constraints to involvement in TA, perceived benefits of involvement in TA and wellbeing status. Indices of attitude (unfavourable: 92.00-112.73, favourable: 112.74-142.00), involvement in TA (not involved: 0.00, low: 0.01.00-8.21, high: 8.22-46.00) and wellbeing (worse-off: 1.25-5.30, better-off: 5.31-21.92) were generated. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Pearson product moment correlation and multiple linear regression at α0.05. Age, household size and monthly income of household heads (HH) were 52.6±13.5 years, 5.7±2.9 persons and N54,098.29±94,356.12, respectively. Most HH were married (77.0%), male (63.7%) and primarily farmers (44.0%). Attitude to TA was unfavourable for 69.4% and 51.2% in Olumirin and Ikogosi, respectively, but favourable for 73.4% in Idanre. Across sites, involvement in TA was low for 52.3% but relatively higher in host (23.6%) than proximate (5.1%) communities. Involvement in TA was significantly higher in Olumirin (9.62±12.48) compared to Ikogosi (9.34±10.76) and Idanre (6.94±10.57). Identified constraints to involvement in TA were inadequate capital (1.20), government interference (0.94), personal choice (0.79) and busy work schedule (0.78), while perceived benefits of involvement in TA were increased income (1.73), wider contacts (1.62) and improved knowledge (1.61). With respect to wellbeing, 50.7% were better-off across the sites. More households (55.1%) in proximate communities were better off than host (45.8%) communities. This was likely due to observed high level of merchandizing in the proximate communities. Household wellbeing was significantly different across the sites as Olumirin (9.15±3.43) was better off than Idanre (8.76±2.49) and Ikogosi (6.97±2.35). Involvement in TA was significantly related to household wellbeing (r=0.168). Predictors of involvement in TA included proximity to tourist sites (β=0.176), attitude (β=-0.262) and perceived benefits (β=0.290), while years of formal education (β=0.162), household size (β=0.253), average income (β=0.126) and involvement in TA (β=0.190) were the predictors of wellbeing across the sites.

Host communities were more involved in tourism activities than proximate communities in southwestern Nigeria. However, proximate communities had better wellbeing than host communities. Involvement in tourism activities improved the wellbeing of both host and proximate communities in southwestern Nigeria.