TOURISM DESTINATION ATTRIBUTES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN RIVERS STATE

We set out to examine Tourism Destination Attributes, such as: “Amenities, Accessibilities and Activities”, and Economic Development in Rivers State. These were guided by six research questions and six research Hypotheses. A Correlational Survey design was adopted. The sample size of 323 Tourists visiting Centers in Port Harcourt, Rivers State was utilized. Self-constructed instrument tagged, ‘Tourism Destination Attributes and Economic Development Questionnaire (TDAEDQ)’ was used for data collection. The draft of the Questionnaire was validated by our Senior Colleagues in the Department of Hospitality Management and Tourism. The reliability of the instrument was tested using test-retest reliability to determine the internal consistency of the Questionnaire and correlated with Cronbacch Alpha. The reliability index was high, which means that the instrument was reliable. The research questions were analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation; while, Pearson Moment Product Correlation was used to test the Null Hypothesis at 0.05 level of significant. The findings revealed mild positive significant relationships between Tourism Destination Attributes, (Amenities, Accessibility and Activities) and Economic Development of Tourist Sites in Rivers State. This indicated that tourism Destination Attributes, such as Amenities, Accessibility and Activities are not very necessary in decision making of tourists seeking where to spend their Leisure time. Hence, it was recommended that the Management of Port Harcourt Tourists Destination Sites should invest more in creating awareness of the happenings at the Port Harcourt Tourists Destination Sites.