TOURIST ATTRACTIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Tourist attractions and economic development in Nigeria: An empirical review is the subject of discourse. The study was set to achieve two specific objectives: to determine the relationship between tourist attractions and employment rate in Nigeria and to ascertain the relationship between tourist attractions and rural development in Nigeria.  Structured questionnaires were administered to the selected tourist attractions (tourist employees, management, and rural dwellers). Descriptive statistics was adopted to analyze the research questions. The hypotheses were tested using linear regression analysis to obtain the relationship between the variable under review. The findings showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between tourist attractions and the employment rate in Nigeria. It also revealed that tourist attractions are a source of rural development in Nigeria. It was concluded that tourism has tremendously contributed to the growth of relevant services and infrastructure in Nigeria. The study, therefore, recommended that government should create a serene environment that has the capacity to enhance destination attractiveness in Nigeria; that funds realized from tourism should be used for development projects, and that more attention should be given to tourism because of its employment opportunities to the jobless youths in Nigeria.