CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Tourism is identified as an effective way to revitalise the economy of any destination as noted by Long (2012) and widely acknowledged as one of the fastest growing industry globally. The continuous and rapid growth of tourism is not in isolation of the stable economic growth experienced in the global economy, which lasted from the mid-1990 to 2007. This growth has facilitated increased global disposable income, demand for leisure, and this combined with the global economic restructures in response to globalization that ensured competition in global tourism industry and drastic reductions in travel costs. Thus, tourism has become a major source of economic growth, employment, earnings, and foreign exchange for many countries and considered by developing countries as a main source of development and growth for local economies (Haller, 2012). However, while the growth in tourism owes itself to global economic growth, it is also a fact that tourism has contributed immensely to the growth of the global economy. Indeed, Ozgen (2013) acknowledged that the tourism industry has grown into a major component of the global economy and has become highly developed. In this vein, Nigeria is looking to tourism as a possible alternative income earner (Uduma-Olugu and Onukwube, 2012) and it is believed, as averred by Ajao (2012) that if Nigeria gets its tourism sector right, tourism will serve as an employer of labour besides agriculture.