Index

Abstract

This study categorized and mapped the value co-creation resources at Lekki Conservation Centre and Omu Resort Lagos, Nigeria, for effective marketing, projection of the spatial distribution of tourism products, successful service delivery and efficient customer satisfaction. Field survey was used to identify the tourism resources and facilities supporting value co-creation among the tourists. Spatial data of value co-creation facilities’ locations were collected using hand-held Global Positioning System and their photographs were subsequently captured with a digital camera. These data were uploaded into Quantum GIS software for analysis. The map of co-creation resources was produced using GIS overlay, including geo-tagging each of the facilities location with its photograph to generate the co-creation resource map. A total of 21 and 11 recreational resources were identified at Omu Resort and LCC respectively, out of which 7 were categorized as co-creation facilities in each of the sites. Research concluded that more facilities promoting value co-creation should be added at tourism sites for destinations to have a competitive edge in the tourism market since tourists now enjoy being in control of how values are created for themselves through active participation and interaction with other tourists.

Keywords: Resource map, Value co-creation, Facilities, Tourist, Marketingm, Nigeria.

Received: 10 March 2020 / Revised: 20 April 2020 / Accepted: 22 May 2020/ Published: 16 June 2020

Contribution/ Originality

This study is one of the very few studies that have investigated and mapped out tourist destination attractions supporting co-creation activities in developing countries. Knowledge generated from mapping these features provides essential information for efficient marketing and enhances the competitiveness of tourist sites in the tourism industry.

1. INTRODUCTION

Value co-creation is a collaborative and interactive process in which value is in return created for each participating actor (Leclercq, Hammedi, & Poncin, 2016). Co-creation exists in a broad range of tourism types which encompass active participation (physical or mental) and collaboration with other participants during a tour, for instance sport or nature-based tourism (Ihamäki, 2012) cultural and heritage tourism (Minkiewicz, Evans, & Bridson, 2013) resort tourism (Prebensen & Foss, 2011) adventure tourism, events and festivals (Morgan, 2007a). Consumers can create value for a destination by sharing the experience they got when they visited the destination with others and this sharing process can influence both the consumers sharing the experience and the people being shared to Kumar et al. (2010).

Tourism co-creation experience is a concept that is explained as the set of psychological occurrences and processes that are intrinsic and subjective to the tourist (Scott, Laws, & Boksberger, 2009) since a particular tourist activity is capable of creating diverse experiences in the tourists (Volo, 2009). Tourism co-creation experiences start from a tourist when he or she gets involved in activities and interacts with different subjects during the tourism trip in the particular experience environment (Larsen, 2007). Experiences are not tangible, greatly personal (Cutler & Carmichael, 2010) and are subjective, that is, based on the tourists’ feeling or intuition (Morgan, 2007b). Eraqi (2011) opined that tourists in recent times want to “roll up their sleeves”, that is actively participate in destination activities which involves active body movements, physical, intellectual and cognitive activity rather than just be involved passively.

Interactions while engaging in tourism activities which result in experiences (Minkiewicz et al., 2013) and interactions or collaborations among individuals (Walls, Okumus, Wang, & Kwun, 2011) all have influence on the tourists’ level of involvement in the destination experience (Minkiewicz et al., 2013) and the depth of memory the experience gives (Bharwani & Jauhari, 2013). Interplay among tourists during personal challenge and goal achievement activities establishes bond and togetherness among the tourists (Rihova, Buhalis, Moital, & Gouthro, 2013) where tourists’ engagement in activities depends on their interaction and collaboration with others (Mansfeldt, Vestager, & Iversen, 2008). Social development and experience memory are enhanced based on tourists’ interaction with one another (Tung & Ritchie, 2011). These interactions might happen in the form of planned encounters like an encounter between a craft instructor and a tourist at a workshop or the particular setting or context might inspire the interactions among the tourists for instance, tourists talking with one another during the workshop. Also, some interactions which are formal involve a written agreement between concerned parties such as a hotel administrator and a guest while other interactions are informal, for instance, an encounter between a tourist and a fellow citizen in a restaurant. All these types of social interactions form the co-created experience (Cutler & Carmichael, 2010).

Furthermore, the main issues of value co-creation begins with the tourist destination identifying and comprehending the tourist experiences that would be under the destination’s control in order to get their tourists engaged in co-creating the tourism experience and also determining the form in which particular aspects of a destination can form linkage with memorable experience dimensions (Andrades & Dimanche, 2014). It is also important to make provision for diverse choices of tourism attractions revealing how distinct the destinations are, as well as various amazing moments derived from spending time at the destinations (Morgan 2006). The experience in whole should be made to impact positive values that has connection with tourists’ life goals and values (Andrades & Dimanche, 2014). Mapping should form an integral part of the overall tourism development package (Uluocha, 2014). Therefore, this study aimed to provide answers to the question on what are the value-cocreation resources in Lekki Conservation Centre and Omu Resort, Lagos State, Nigeria. The resource mapping will give insight into the location of these facilities within the sites.

2. METHODOLOGY

2.1. Study Area

The study was carried out in Lekki Conservation Centre (LCC) which lies between Latitude 6027’N and 3023’E Figure 1 and Omu Resort (OR) which lies between latitude 6049’N and longitude 3075’E Figure 2, Lagos state, Nigeria.

2.2. Data Collection and Analysis

Direct observation was used to identify the tourism resources and to further detect the facilities supporting co-creation among tourists (value-co-creation facilities) at the sites. Spatial data of value co-creation facilities’ locations were collected using hand-held Global Positioning System and their photographs were subsequently captured using a digital camera. These data were uploaded into Quantum GIS software (QGIS 2.8) environment for interpretations. Finally, the maps of these resources were produced using GIS overlay, including geo-tagging each of resource locations with its photograph to generate a co-creation resource map. Data were presented through tables and maps.

Figure-1. Map of Lekki conservation centre.

Figure-2. Map of Omu Resort, Lagos Nigeria.

3. RESULTS

Table 1 and 2 presents recreational resources as various facilities and activities available at both Lekki Conservation Centre (LCC) and Omu resort. The Value co-creation activities allow the tourists to participate as a team in group which require the tourists’ active involvement. Active involvement refers to activities which allows the tourist to immerse themselves in an experience, taking on responsibility for each step in the process both physically (body movements) and psychologically (learning, collecting, and sharing information and knowledge acquisition). Passive involvement refers to activities which are generally controlled by the tourist site’s setting in which the tourist reacts only to what the site offers like sightseeing. A total of 21 and 11 recreational resources were identified at Omu Resort and LCC respectively, out of which 7 were categorized as co-creation facilities in each of the sites. The thematic map showing the co-creation activities and facilities are presented in Figure 3 and Figure 4.

                Table-1. Recreational resources at Lekki conservation centre.

Facilities	Activities	Form of participation	Type of Involvement
Canopy Walk way	A suspended walk way provided for visitors to take a walk and enjoy	Group	Active
Tree house	A small house built on a tree where visitors climb ladder to go and explore	Individual	Active
Volleyball Court	Court provided for visitors to play volleyball	Group	Active
Draft	Draft board game designed on a plastered ground surface for visitors to play	Group	Active
Ludo	Ludo board game designed on a plastered ground surface for visitors to play	Group	Active
Chess	Chess board game designed on a plastered ground surface for visitors to play	Group	Active
Snake and Ladder	Snake and Ladder board game designed on a plastered ground surface for visitors to play	Group	Active
Fish pond	A pond provided for visitors to view fishes	Individual	Passive
Koi pond	A pond stocked with foreign breed koi fishes for visitors to view	Individual	Passive
Table tennis court	A table provided for visitors to play table tennis	Group	Active
Boardwalk	A long trail with beautiful wood construction provided for visitors to take a walk and view wild animals in their natural environment	Individual	Passive

Figure-3. Co-creation resource map of Lekki conservation centre, Lagos.

Table-2. Recreational resources at omu resort.

Facilities	Activities	Form of participation	Type of Involvement
Tide's wet & wild/ wave pool	Swings and facilities designed for children and located inside pool	Individual	Active
Archery	An arrow is provided to shoot and aim at bull’s eye	Individual	Active
Zoo	Collection of animals like Lion, Chimpanzee, Ostrich for animal viewing	Individual	Passive
Mini golf	A type of golf game played for entertainment on a small course where players try to hit balls into holes that each have different features and obstacles	Individual	Active
DDT Paintball arena	An area provided for a competitive team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules ("paintballs") that break upon impact	Group	Active
Bull Ride	An electronically powered artificial bull where visitors sit on and have a feeling of riding a real bull	Individual	Active
Slam Dunk	A mini basketball area where visitors are provided with balls to throw and aim at the baskets	Individual	Active
Omu soccer	A mini field with two goal posts for football	Group	Active
Exploration Island/Mission Impossible	An area where different equipment like ropes, ladders are provided for visitors to explore and be active	Group	Active
Nkem’s hook and grill fishing	Water where fishing gears are provided for visitors to engage in fishing	Individual	Active
David’s sanctuary	A garden for visitors to explore flora and interesting features	Individual	Passive
Antique museum	Museum where different antiquities are stored for visitors’ viewing	Individual	Passive
Boat Cruise	A boat provided for tourists to take them on a short trip on an area of water	Group	Active
Quad Bike	A sporting bike trip which visitor ride themselves	Individual	Active
Go karting	A sporting car is provided for visitors to race about an area	Individual	Active
Amusement Park (Umbrella ride, chair swing ride, space ship, pirate ship, Gully dip)	A collection of different automated swings for visitors’ activities	Group	Active
Kayaking/Boating	A small-sized boat is provided for visitors to move about on a small area of water	Group	Active
The blades	Skating board for visitors to move about and enjoy	Group	Active
Wax museum	Museum where wax structures of prominent people are displayed	Individual	Passive
Horse riding	Activity where visitors ride on horse provided	Individual	Active
Kiddies world	A collection of games for children	Individual	Active
Sea world	A display of different types of fishes and aquatic organisms in aquaria	Individual	Passive

4. DISCUSSION

Nigeria has fantastic tourist attractions, with great potential to draw both local and international visitors. The various resources and facilities available at Omu Resort is a pointer to this fact. These attractions are entertaining and form the core foundation for establishing a tourism destination as tourists are attracted to visit because of these facilities and attractions as reported by Edensor (2001) that travel to visit attractions and destinations involves participation in some kind of entertainment-focused or learning-based activities that are perceived as stimulating, different from everyday routines and potentially meaningful (Tan, Kung, & Luh, 2013; Wikstrom, 2008).

The value co-creation activities which allow for tourists to participate in group and also actively participate include: DDT Paintball arena, Omu soccer, Exploration Island, Boat Cruise, Amusement Park (Umbrella ride, chair swing ride, space ship, pirate ship, Gully dip), Kayaking, the blades, canopy walkway, volleyball court, draft, Ludo, chess, snake and ladder and table tennis. This is in line with the concept of Co-creation which involves processes of interrelated interactions and activities that connect the tourist and other actors before consumption and during stay at the destination (Andrades & Dimanche, 2014; Jager, 2009; Volo, 2009). Co-creation activities also encourage the active participation of tourists which can enhance satisfaction with the tourism destination as stated by (Lončarić, Prodan, & Dlačić, 2017) that through satisfaction with the co-creation experience, overall travel satisfaction is enhanced as tourists have an active role in shaping their travel experience. Consumers who participate in creating value in the consumption process are shown to be more satisfied than passive agents (Troye & Supphellen, 2012). Co-creation also supports a group of people participating in an activity at the same time thus facilitating interaction among them. Through this interaction, a more beneficial product or service is made, and value is added since resources are shared by multiple parties (Mathis, 2013). Neuhofer, Buhalis, and Ladkin (2012) also stated that tourists’ interactions, their active participation in the experience and their attitudes on sharing the experience with others are identified as the antecedents of experience co-creation.Attractions can also be modified to support interaction among tourists as in the case of canopy walkway which the management modified to take more than five tourists at a time to explore it rather than leave tourists to make use of it alone. This act thus promoted co-creation at the site and is supported by (Majboub, 2014) that tourism destinations need to create “experience environments” where co-creation is seen as a way of how to operate in the market. Mapping the co-creation resources in each site provides an opportunity to showcase these resources and facilities for increased patronage by both national and international tourists. This corroborates (Olaniyi, Esan, Odewumi, Oladeji, & Oyeleke, 2016) that resource mapping has remained an efficient tool to have a prior understanding of the ecotourism attractions and facilities, by visually highlighting landmarks and other points of interest for visitors to an unfamiliar ecotourism destination.

5. CONCLUSION

This study identified various tourist facilities and value co-creation activities at Lekki Conservation Centre and Omu Resort, Lagos State, Nigeria. Although, Omu Resort has a higher number of recreational resources (21), seven (7) of them were co-creation facilities among which are DDT Paintball shooting sport, Kayaking/Boating and the Blades. A total of 11 recreational resources were identified at LCC of which 7 were co-creation facilities, including the longest canopy walkway in Africa (401 metres long and 22.5 metres high), the chess, snake and ladder games. These co-creation activities enable the active involvement of tourists in the activities and encourage the joint participation of different tourists, thereby promoting interaction between tourists and thus creating values for themselves rather than relying passively on tourism destinations alone. Enhancement of a memorable visitor experience, tourist loyalty and travel satisfaction in tourism destinations requires the provision of more value co-creation facilities and activities that emphasize the need to include tourists as an active, engaged and participating part of the service delivery process.

Funding: This study received no specific financial support.

Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgement: Authors recognize and particularly appreciate the support and cooperation received from the management of Lekki Conservation Centre and Omu Resort. The efforts of Mr. Adedamola Ogunsesan (LCC) and Miss Moriamo Mustapha (OR) in the field work are highly commendable.

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