Repositioning Nigeria’s Culture and Tourism Industry for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development: An Encounter with Arinta Waterfalls

Abstract

Tourism and culture are two entities that have contributed to the socio-economic development of different nations of the world, Israel,  Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates etc are pointers to this fact. However, it is appalling to note that, despite the tourism and culture  potentials of Nigeria, the nation has refused to explore this avenue of generating economy, but rather concentrate all its resources on  crude oil as the mainstay of the economy, and consequently, hampering socio economic development of other sectors/region. This paper  aims at investigating the problems ravaging the culture and tourism sector, using the researcher’s encounter with Arinta  Waterfalls in Ipole Iloro Ekiti, with a view of institutionalising the way forward for the industry. The paper hinges of the Social Exchange  Theory and adopts both qualitative and quantitative methods of data gathering, through interviews with the stakeholders, and a total of  50 questionnaires were distributed through a random sampling technique and all were retrieved. The study thus, concludes that,  unavailability of publicity, inefficiency and absence of tourist site workers, hike in transportation are major problems contributing to the  dearth of tourism in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that, government should seek to commercialize tourist sites, to enhance efficiency and sustainability in administration, as well as adequate publicity through radio jingles, television, billboards at strategic places  and social media.