Paper Title
Assessing Infrastructure Provision and Tourist Motivation to Resort Destination for Sustainable Tourism Development in Lagos, Nigeria.
Abstract
Tourism and hospitality sector as elucidated in the literature is one of the largest and fastest emerging industries worldwide which attracts tourists from developed and developing nations and has become a veritable source of economic diversification and sustainability. The sector strengthens the service sector towards enhancing effectiveadmixtureof interconnections with a nation’s economy. The paper argues that while the developed countries account for higher percentage of global tourism, many developing countries including Nigeria endowed with abundant tourism potentials and attractions should begin toexploit and take advantage of the huge opportunities to diversify its economy which hitherto solely depended on oil revenues forsocio-economic growth. The research sets out to espouse sustainable tourism development through effective infrastructure provision and managementby leveragingon the understanding that infrastructure is critical to the achievement of the goals of national tourism policy. It highlights the huge tourism potentials across the natural and diversified landscape of Nigeria but lacks effective support for adequate infrastructure provision.It examines themotivational factors that attract visitors to tourism destination as well as assessing theirlevel of fulfillment on the quality of infrastructure in the destination.Data for the study was collected with the aid of infrastructure check list using a mixed method of research approach comprisingan in-depth interview with keyinformant; and administration of questionnairesto respondents. The data collected were quantitatively analyzed to determine the mean score. A bench mark of 3.0 mean score was used forthe research. Findings show significantdeficit and discontentment of the respondents with the quality and availability of infrastructure checklist variables. Based on the correlation between tourism sector potential and its positive contribution to the development of host communitiesand improved standardof lives of residents withadequate provision of critical infrastructure, thepaper recommends upgrading of existing infrastructureand provisionof critical infrastructure through public-private partnershipas a precursor to enhancingsustainable tourism development in Lagos.
Keywords - Destination, Infrastructure, Motivation, Tourism, Sustainable Development