Index

1. INTRODUCTION

Tourism is one of the largest global industries with the highest growth rate, along with economic opportunities such as employment creation and a high potential for growth. It is a part of global process of change and development (known as globalization) which is no longer confined to the developed countries that traditionally provided the demand for world travel, while also essential that social, cultural and ecological criteria be taken into account for the medium and long term sustainability of tourism operations and facilities (McNeely et al., 1998; Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2002; Mbaiwa, 2003). Tourism is seen as one of the most important global industry. In Holloway (1999) stated that tourism plays a vital role in the social, cultural and economic development of most nations. Inevitably, it has the potential to both preserve and destroy the heritage of a country. Again, the basic aim of tourism management in a destination is to maximize the sectors economic, socio-cultural and environmental benefits, while minimizing the associated cost.

Apart from obvious and visible effects on the economy and the physical environment, tourism can contribute to the socio-cultural changes in host societies, including changes in value systems, traditional lifestyles and community structures. According to Kreag (2001) the socio-cultural impacts of tourism need to be taken into account as communities will be the ones to live with the changes that will occur. Most of the times these changes are assumed to be positive. According to Wall and Mathieson (2006) and Van Harsel (1994) demonstrated that tourism development can bear unintended social impacts on host communities where their relationships with tourists degenerate from the state of Euphoria and apathy to that of irritation, antagonism and forgetfulness. In a situation of such retrogression a variety of social ills such as: crime, prostitution, destruction of cultural artefacts and derogation of local culture could increase to unbeatable proportions. However, tourism has also been seen to produce positive social impacts for host communities as people of different cultural background engage in education and technology exchanges.

Cross River Tourism Development would deservedly be remembered to the Donald Duke administration (1999-2007), when he saw the infinite possibilities in tourism and released his boundless youthful energy into his pursuit. Where he ensured that funds were provided in order to boost the sector to serve as a catalyst for the economy and bring his dream into reality, through the establishment of several attraction centres like the Tinapa business resort, Marina resort, Obudu cattle ranch, Carnival Calabar and other local attraction centres to stimulate tourism in the state.

The Tinapa emporia was constructed to showcase the potentials of tourism in Cross River State as a healthy mix of leisure and business, with huge business and leisure facilities rolled into ambitions complex. Tinapa was created with the aim of benefiting from the possibilities of the export free zones (EPZ). It was envisioned to be a repository of an endless flow of goods and services unhindered by the regular bureaucracy and bottlenecks of international trade and commerce. This inflow was expected to meet a captivated and leisure-driven audience of revelers and businessmen who were primed to spend good money by the enchanting ambience of Tinapa.

The Obudu Ranch Resort is one of God’s unique gifts to the state; it is part of Cross River’s history and heritage. The Donald Duke administration boldly set to re-engineer and re-brand the Ranch to meet its tourism projections. Accordingly, the entire architectural outlay of the Ranch was transformed with a plethora of new buildings, state of the art facilities and more importantly, a benefiting presidential wing that was meant to accord the ranch the status of a “Camp David” of sorts, in order to ease access to the facility. The Bebi Airstrip was then constructed and a shuttle service from Calabar introduced to give the journey to the ranch the aerie intensity that it deserves, a cable car network reputed as the longest in Africa was also introduced. From its dizzy heights the cable car permitted its users the uncommon enjoyment of the entire splendor of the beautiful Obudu landscape in one exotic gaze-a true tourist delight. To this day, the ranch remains arguably the most exotic resort in the country.

The marina resort is located at the waterfront: it has a luxury hotel and a night-club. The Boat club at the resort offers boat cruises to members and visitors, also there’s the caroused, the open air amphitheatre and a food and wine café. Another point at the waterfront is the Freedom Bay that shares similar slave history and attributes as the Marina resort. The Marina Museum is another exciting attraction wholly dedicated to the character and organization of the slave trade. The Museum is located at the Marina Resort, which was itself the hub and collection point of the slave commodity, and the point of evacuation of the slaves to the new world. It was the point from where an estimated 30 percent of the total number of slaves who were taken to the new world left Africa. The Resort has an ambience that deeply reflects the character of the slave trade, it commemorates the ordeal and sufferings the slaves had gone through in the different processes involved from the acquisition to the evacuation stage. Exhibitions at the Museum illustrates the slave route by which slaves were captured and transported to the baracoons (enclosures where slaves were stored) at the Calabar port, pending the arrival of European super cargoes to pick up their goods.

The Calabar carnival festival in Nigeria, also known as “Africa’s Biggest Street Party” is one carnival that has come a long way since it’s inception in the year 2004. It is the melting point of a series of events and activities often scheduled for the entire festival. The carnival is a showcase of culture, history, talent, creativity and tourism. It is celebrated on the 28 December of each year, and features five major competing bands such as: passion four, seagull band, bayside band, freedom band and master blaster band with two recently added bands which is the Governors band and the Hit Fm band. Gradually, it has attained international status, as it now attracts visitors and participants from across the world. There’s so much to the carnival. It is extraordinary, with a strong sense of visual imagery of aesthetic ingenuity that highlights an enchanting display of costumes, designs, dance procession and entertainment. In all, the carnival and convey a historic and cultural consciousness at a time and artifacts are constantly being threatened with the challenge of preservation. Based on the aforementioned, the study seeks to investigate the socio-economic impact of tourism in Calabar Metropolis.

2. THE STUDY AREA

The study area is Calabar Metropolis: (Calabar South and Calabar Municipality), which lies between latitude 500 32’ and 400 22’ North and longitude 700 50’ and 900 28’ East, it is about 21, 481sqkm in size. It is situated within the tropics and bounded with Odukpani Local Government Area in the North; Akwa Ibom in the South and the Republic of Cameroon in the East; while the West is characterized by a moderately undulating peninsular with a descending land towards the Calabar River and a gradual slope towards the Kwa River at the East. Calabar also referred to as “Canaan City” is a city in Cross River State, the original name for Calabar was “Akwa Akpa” from the Efik language. The city is adjacent to the Calabar and Great Kwa rivers and creeks of the Cross River (from its inland Delta). With coordinates of: 40 5 70’ “N8019’ 30” E/4.950000 N8. 325000E with a total Area of 406km2 (157sqmi) and a population density of 910/km2 (2,400/sqmi).

Figure-1. Map of Calabar metropolis showing Calabar Municipality and Calabar South local government areas

Source: Office of the Surveyor General of Cross River (2015).

Based on Köppen’s climate classification, Calabar features a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen: Am) with a lengthy wet season spanning ten months and a short dry season covering the remaining two months. The harmattan, which significantly influences weather in West Africa, is noticeably less pronounced in the city. Temperature is relatively constant throughout the year, with average high temperatures usually ranging from 25 to 28 degrees Celsius. There is also little variation between daytime and night time temperature, as night temperatures are typically only a few degrees lower than the day time high temperature. Calabar averages just less than 3,000 millimeters (120in) of precipitation annually. Cross River State has a great variety of geomorphic features based on common landform assemblages, also relief and drainage. However, Calabar is watered by the great Kwa River as well as the Calabar River. There is increasing elevation Northwards of the city. This makes it a coastal region with most precipitation running towards its coast. The location is a moderately undulating peninsular with a descending land towards the Calabar River and a gradual slope towards the Kwa River at the East.

Due to agriculture and urbanization, most of the vegetation of the study area have been impacted by man over the years. However, it is still of typical tropical rainforest. It is characterized by three layer canopy with the emergent trees. The trees are characterized with buttress smooth bark and columnar boles. Thick stem, woody climbing plants (lianas) are common as well as epiphytes and other herbs. A total of 6,202sqkm is covered with thick forest and accounts for about 22% of the land area of Cross River State. The dominant soil type is the loamy soil which supports the cultivation of some crops and trees like oil palm, rubber, yam and cassava.
As a state capital, as well as centre of administrative duties, Calabar pulls a high population of civil servants and businessmen and women who are mostly residents and these people depend on the available social services and infrastructure. Calabar has an International Airport, a seaport, a free Trade zone and an attractive tourism sites like the Tinapa, Marina Resorts, Akwa vista and so on to its credit. Farming, fishing and hunting also remain a major trade in some parts of the metropolis mostly Calabar south. There are two major markets, (i) Marian market (ii) Watt market and other markets scattered around the city. Accommodation and fast food restaurants will not be left out as the advent of tourism have brought about a huge number of hotels and restaurants to cater for our tourists.

3. METHOD OF STUDY

A survey design was adopted for this study. This type of design enables the researcher to study both small and large population and also give equal opportunity to respondents without bias as to which person is chosen for the study. Data collected for this study were based on the study objectives with information on the socio-economic impact of tourism in Calabar metropolis.

Primary and secondary sources of data provided the information for this research. The primary sources involved the use of questionnaire, interview and researcher’s direct field observations. The secondary sources involved information from internet, textbooks, journals and annual reports from Cross River Tourism Bureau. The population of the study is made up of revenue generated agencies and house-hold heads in the study area. Information was also gathered from private businessmen/women (traders), youths who have in one way or the other like had a field of the socio-economic impact of tourism within the metropolis.

The technique employed by the researcher is stratified random sampling. The reason here is simple, using random sample procedure here will exclude chances of some groups not being selected. The researcher uses stratification because it will produce more accurate estimate of the population characteristics than simple random sampling, since the researcher encompasses heterogeneous groups as found in the ten selected sample population within the metropolis.

In all, two hundred (200) respondents were used. It comprised of different subjects i.e 40, 15, 15, 20, 30, 10, 10, 30, 10, and 20 from each street of Marian, Etta Agbo, IBB way, Mary Slessor, MCC, Atimbo, Akim, Anantigha, Goldie & Calabar road within the metropolis. The choice of the sampled street was influenced by how significant these areas are to the objective of the study.

The questionnaires were distributed by the researcher to the respondents; collection of questionnaires was between one to three days after distribution. A total of two hundred (200) questionnaires were distributed to all the respondents in the study area. The four point Likert scale was used in the scoring of the responses to each statement in the questionnaire. The statements covered the three formulated hypothesis for the study.

The response sets include:

Strongly agree              (SA).
Agree                             (A).
Disagree                        (D).
Strongly disagree        (SD).

This scale item is not reflecting anywhere in the questions see Table 4 down. They are rated in descending order of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 respectively for the responses. The total number ticked in each of the sections covering the three variables under study was added. At the completion of the field work copies of the questionnaires were collected and quantified where necessary. Independent t-test statistical analysis was used to analyze the data.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSING OF FINDING

4.1. Socio-Demographic Attributes of Respondents

The data were presented below:

The age-range of respondents in the study area was revealed in Figure 2. It is observed that 20 respondents falls under the age-bracket of 15-20 which represents (10%), 33 respondents representing (18%) falls under the age bracket of 21-25, 65 respondents representing 35% are between the age-bracket of 26-35, 45 respondents representing (24%) falls under the age bracket of 36-45, while 25 respondents representing (13%) were between the age-bracket of 46 and above.

Figure-2. Age bracket of respondents.

Source: Field work, (2018).

Table 1 shows that that the total number of male respondents was 97 which represents (51.6%) of the sample size, while female respondents were 91 representing 48.4% of the total sample size of the study area.

Table-1. Sex of respondent.

Source: Field work, (2018).

The sex of respondents shows that the total number of single respondents were 99 which represents (52.7%) of the sample size, while married respondents were 89 representing 47.4% of the total sample size of the study area Table 2.

Table-2. Marital status.

Source: Field work, (2018).

Occupational distribution of respondents Figure 3 revealed that 52 respondents which represent 27% were student, 32 respondents representing 17% were private sectors, 67 respondents representing 36% were business owners, while 28 respondents representing 15% were unemployed, with tourism industry having 9 respondents with a percentage of 5%.

Figure-3. Occupation of respondents.

Table-3. Academic qualification.

Source: Field work, (2018).

Table 3 indicates the academic qualification of respondents. Results revealed 124 respondents representing 66% have tertiary education and the dominant population in the study area, followed by 59 respondents representing 31.4% of respondents with secondary education, while 3 respondents representing 1.6% of the sample size with no formal education and 2 respondents representing 1.0% of the sample size with primary education.

4.2. Socio Economic Benefits of Tourism Activities in the Study Area

The socioeconomic benefit of tourism was investigated in the study area. The study examined benefits from revenue generation, carnival activities and other socio-economic benefits.  From Table 4, it is observed that the total number of respondents that completed their questionnaire were 188. SA respondents were 103 representing 54.8% of the sample size. A total of 73 respondents representing 38.9%, 11 respondents representing 5.8% while only 1 representing 0.5% of the sample size in the study area recorded strongly disagree. With the above response, it is observed that revenue generation was on the increase in the study area.

Table-4. Revenue generation with the advent of tourism in the study area.

Source: Field work, (2018).

Table 5 showed that the total number of respondents that completed their questionnaire were 188. SA respondents were 76 representing 40.4% of the sample size, A 92 respondents representing 49%, D 18 respondents representing 9.6% while SD were 2 respondents representing 1.0% of the sample size in the study area. With the above response, it is observed that the carnival Calabar have contributed positively to the economy in the study area.

Table-5. Carnival Calabar contribution to the economy in the study area.

Source: Field work, (2018).

It was revealed in Table 6 that the total number of respondents that completed their questionnaire was 188. SA respondents were 114 representing 60.6 of the sample size, A 59 respondents representing 31.4%, D 8 respondents representing 4.3% while SD were 7 respondents representing 3.7% of the sample size in the study area. With the above response, it is observed that there is a positive increase in the GDP due to massive patronage of tourism in the study area. It could be seen that the quality of service in shops have improved due to the influence of Calabar carnival and tourism in the study area.

Table-6. Assessment level of GDP.

    Source: Field work, (2018).

Table-7. Influence of Calabar carnival on service delivery in the study area.

Source: Field work, (2018).

Table-8. Cost of living since the advent of tourism in the study area.

Source: Field work, (2018).

From the above table, it is observed that the total number of respondents that completed their questionnaire were 185. SA respondents were 39 representing 21.1% of the sample size, A 64 respondents representing 34.6%, D 59 respondents representing 31.9% while SD were 23 respondents representing 12.4% of the sample size in the study area. With the above response, it is observed that Calabar carnival and tourism have contributed to the increased cost of living in the study area.

Table-9. Assessment of crime rate within the study area.

Source: Field work, (2018).

From the above table, it is observed that the total number of respondents that completed their questionnaire were 187. SA respondents were 28 representing 15.0% of the sample size, A 81 respondents representing 43.3%, D 46 respondents representing 24.6% while SD were 32 respondents representing 17.1% of the sample size in the study area. With the above response, it is observed that businesses within the carnival route have witnessed massive patronage than businesses outside the carnival route.

Table-10. Assessment of the impact of Calabar carnival on youths locally and internationally.

Source: Field work, (2018).

From the above table, it is observed that the total number of respondents that completed their questionnaire were 187. SA respondents were 87 representing 46.5% of the sample size, A were 90 representing 48.1%, D were 5 representing 2.7% while SD were 5 respondents representing 27% of the sample size in the study area. With the above response, it is observed that regime change as well as political will have had negative influence on the tourism industry in the study area.

Table-11. Assessment of tourism influence on culture in the study area.

Source: Field work, (2018).

From the above table, it is observed that the total number of respondents that completed their questionnaire were 186. SA respondents were 26 representing 13.9% of the sample size, A were 81 representing 43.6%, D were 69 respondents representing 37.1% while SD were 10 respondents representing 5.4% of the sample size in the study area. With the above response, it is observed that the sensitization and awareness level in the study area is inadequate.

Table-12. Assessment of the level of infrastructural facilities within the study area.

Source: Field work, (2018).

From the above table, it is observed that the total number of respondents that completed their questionnaire were 188. SA respondents were 105 representing 55.8% of the sample size, A were 55 representing 29.3%, D were 21 representing 11.2% while SD were 7 respondents representing 3.7% of the sample size in the study area. With the above response, it is observed that there is an absence of tourism planning and local people incorporation in the study area.

Table-13. Assessment of taxation level in the study area.

Source: Field work, (2018).

From the above table, it is observed that the total number of respondents that completed their questionnaire were 188. SA respondents were 138 representing 73.4% of the sample size, A were  30 representing 15.9%, D were 11 representing  5.9% while SD were 9 respondents representing 4.8% of the sample size in the study area. With the above response, it is observed that taxation is on the highest level in the study area.

4.3. Hypothesis

This hypothesis states that there is no significance difference between the socio-economic impacts of tourism and the internally generated revenue of the state. Question one (1) was used to test this hypothesis, while independent t-test was used at .05 level of significance.

Table-14. The summary is presented below.

The statistical analysis of the results presented above shows that the calculated t-value of 2.89 is seen to be greater than the critical t-value of 1.980 at 0.05 level of significance with 112 degree of freedom. Since the calculated value is greater than the critical value, we therefore reject the null hypothesis (Ho) and accept the alternate hypothesis (Hi).

This means that there is a significant difference between the socio-economic impact of tourism and the internally generated revenue of the state. The result of the first hypothesis revealed that tourism in cross river state since its inception has impacted positively on the internally generated revenue mostly within the metropolis. According to Mbaiwa (2003) tourism stimulates economic activities in a destination, assist in improving the overall economic status of the country and that tourism can lead to increase in the country’s GDP. For example, in the Caribbean and pacific islands over 50% of the GDP is derived from tourism, which rises to 88% in the case of the Maldives, and in northern Botswana tourism contributes about 45% to the country’s GDP.

5. CONCLUSION

In view of the findings of this study, it can be concluded that tourism has impacted positively on the economy as well as residents and also serve as a medium for ushering in the needed development as well as creating employment opportunities though faced with some challenges of regime change in the state. Based on the discoveries made at the completion of this research work, it is recommended that employment of tourism experts in the tourism agency, for example, the Tourism Bureau should be taken into consideration so as to pilot the affairs of tourism in the state.

REFERENCES

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2002. Available from http://www.gtz.de/en/themen/laendliche-entwicklung/11013.htm [Accessed 18 September 2006].

Holloway, J.C., 1999. The business of tourism. New York: Longman.

Kreag, G., 2001. The impacts of tourism. Minnesota: Minnesota Sea Grant.

Mbaiwa, J.C., 2003. The socio-economic and environmental impacts of tourism on the Okavango Delta. Maun: Harry Oppeinheimer Okavango Delta Research Centre.

McNeely, J.A., J.W. Thorsell and H. Ceballos-Lascurain, 1998. Guidelines: Development of national parks and protected areas for tourism. Madrid: IUCN Joint Publication.

Van Harsel, J., 1994. Tourism: An explanation. Englehood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

Wall, G. and A. Mathieson, 2006. Tourism: Change, impacts and opportunities. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.