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Crime And Sustainable Tourism In Nigeria
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For many decades, successive
governments have identified the need to diversify the economy and break
the mono-product dependence on oil. Tourism no doubt is a veritable
alternative to oil as a major revenue earner for the country. It is seen
as a promising route towards boosting economic development (Common
Wealth Currents, 1998). This underscores the timeliness of this
research. The global economic meltdown and fallen prices of crude oil
more than ever before, makes it imperative for alternative sources of
revenue to be exploited. Tourism development ought to be one of the
safeguards for a sustainable future in the event of an end of the crude
oil mono-economic dependence.
Despite this recognition, the challenge
now has been to convert the available potentials into a dynamic
reality. For tourism industry to contribute significantly to economic
development in Nigeria, just as it does to some economies, due regard
should be given to the issue of safety and security. It is in this
context that this study identifies lack of safety and incidence of crime
as a more serious threat to tourism than any other negative factors.
For the present government to succeed in its agenda of repositioning the
tourism sector as a major contributor to the economy of Nigeria, tackle
the lackluster performance in the industry, it has to pay attention to
issues that have been overlooked by previous regimes.
Today, there is
a growing concern among scholars that crime and disruptions in tourism
destinations have made the hospitality industry more hostile than
hospitable. Thus, as the importance of the tourism industry is
recognized namely the revenue resulting for the host country, the
possibility of any negative consequences such as the development of
crime behaviour should also be pointed out.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Tourism
is expected to foster economic growth through foreign exchange earnings
and increase in state revenue and at a second level, on the improvement
in the people’s wellbeing in the areas of job creation, revenue and
sustainable development (Nwidum, 2007). In 1995, tourism was responsible
for over 100 million jobs world-wide and from 2005 onward, the figure
was expected to increase to 300 million (Sheldon, 1997). However as
observed by Etuk (2012), the performance of Nigeria in the tourism
sector is still very poor when compared with the scorecards of other
countries. In a country like Zimbabwe, tourism is the largest
contributor to the G.D.P after manufacturing and agricultural sectors.
Other countries like Kenya, South Africa and Gambia have impressive
performance than Nigeria. Although many factors can be understood to
threaten the development of tourism in Nigeria, such as infrastructural.
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