Tourism as a Source of Economic growth: Lessons for North Central Nigeria

Abstract

The emergence of African economies in the 21st century as a growing continent necessitates the development of innovative ways for identifying potential growth avenues to increase economic growth. Globally, tourism has been employed in economies like Britain and Italy to generate income. In Africa, South Africa and Kenya have employed tourism as a major source of economic growth and development. In Nigeria, little or no benefits are derived from the opportunities that nature, through tourism has provided the country. This study focuses on the impact of tourism activities on economic growth in Nigeria covering the period of 2001- 2010, with the aim of providing key learnings for the North Central region of the nation. Employing a time series regression method, the researchers find that our measure of tourism activities has a negative relationship with economic growth, we however recognize the limitation of the study as data sources were limited to only Hotel and Restaurant activities, coupled with the challenges of Nigeria’s large informal economy. The study recommends that the North Central region and Nigeria needs to partner with experienced economies so as to benefit from knowledge spill overs that may accrue as absorptive capacity to the nation in managing and benefitting from its tourism industry